Himachal Pradesh polls: 58 per cent voting till 4 pm

SHIMLA: A sluggish 58.07 per cent per cent polling recorded till 3:30pm on Sunday in Himachal Pradesh dimmed the hopes of any new record in the 68-member assembly of the hill state, with just a little over hour left for the entire voting process to finish.

However, the poll officials, were hopeful that the polling statistics would jump by the late evening when confirmed reports reach from districts like Kinnaur and Lahaul & Spiti, that are usually cut-off due to poor communication and network.

"We are optimist that polling will surpass its last year's statistic.

Among all the districts, Kangra that has 15 assembly constituencies -- the largest in the state - had however reported the maximum polling so far in the state, confirmed the district's deputy commissioner.

"Till 4:00pm , we had a voter turnout of around 59 per cent" said Kangra DC K R Bharti.

In the past two elections, the winning party - either Congress or BJP has formed the government, depending on their wins in Kangra.

In 2003, the Congress won 11 seats in Kangra out of 16 constituencies the district had at that time. The party went on to form the government under the leadership of the then chief minister Virbhadra Singh.

In 2007, the BJP won nine out of 15 seats and formed the government under the leadership of P K Dhumal who is the incumbent chief minister.

Election in Himachal Pradesh have come amidst months of mud-slinging between the country's two political parties - the Congress and the BJP - both of which are mired in the charges of graft.

On Sunday, the state, however achieved an incredible feat in the world's largest democracy when independent India's first voter Shyam Saran Negi, who has voted 27 times since 1951, exercised his franchise along with his wife in the tiny picturesque hamlet Kalpa in Kinnaur.

The Times of India, had traced Saran to his village Kalpa twice before the polls including the same day when he was publicly identified as the first voter by the Chief election commissioner V S Sampath on October 3. Saran, had first voted on October 25, 1951.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) had advanced the polling date to November 4 fearing harsh cold weather predictions in the state after the poll officials had mulled a date after Diwali on November 15.