Poll officials trek up to 15 km to reach voting stations in Himachal

Shimla, May 30 (IANS) A total of 6,589 polling officials on Thursday moved towards their designated voting stations in Himachal Pradesh, some trudging up to 15 km to reach their destinations, an election official said.

At Mehla block in Chamba district which falls under the Mandi Lok Sabha seat, the polling party walked around 15 km to reach the polling booth located in Aehlami.

Similarly, poll officials walked over 11 km to reach the far-flung polling booths at Pandaar in Dodra-Kwar and Shaakti in the Great Himalayan National Park in Kullu district.

Elsewhere, a 13 km trek took the election officials to the Chakki polling station under the Kangra parliamentary constituency.

The EVMs had to be airlifted along with the officials to Bara Bhangal village in Kangra district.

As per sources, 1,617 polling parties have been deputed for Kangra district, followed by Mandi (1,196), Shimla (967), and Chamba (624) districts.

The high-decibel campaigning in Himachal, which will see polling in all its four parliamentary seats along with six Assembly bypolls on June 1, ended on Thursday with both Congress and BJP making last-minute efforts to woo the 57 lakh electorate in the state.

–IANS

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