Mandi by-poll: Majority of Shalkhar residents boycott repolling

Shimla: A majority of the voters of the Shalkhar polling station in Kinnaur assembly segment on Saturday boycotted the re-polling for the Mandi Lok Sabha by-election. The voters had boycotted the poll on June 27 and polling was stopped as tension brewed are re-poll was fixed for today.

However, only 23 of the 313 voters cast their votes, as majority of them were annoyed alleging of being ignored during the rescue operations in the rain ravaged district. The locals claimed that no arrangement was made to airlift them and they remained stranded in the village for 12 days. Meanwhile, the Election Commission has permitted voting at eight more places of Kinnuar constituency as EVMs could not be brought to Reckong Peo due to blocked roads and bad weather conditions. Meanwhile, 5,82,081 voters out of 11,13,983 voters in Mandi Parliamentary constituency exercise their franchise, recording moderate polling of 52.25 per cent. The counting of votes would start at 8.00 am tomorrow and the result is expected by noon. Pratibha Singh, wife of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh is pitted against former BJP minister Jai Ram Thakur in a five cornered contest. PTI