Dharamshala: Fatehpur assembly which goes to the polls on 30 October has a total of 87222 registered voters. Of the total voters, 85686 voters will exercise their franchise at their respective polling stations while 1536 voters will exercise their vote by postal ballot, election officer Dr. Nipum Jindal stated here today.
Dr. Jindal, who is also the District Magistrate disclosed that there are 43158 male voters and 42528 female voters. Apart from this, 1507 male and 29 female service voters will ensure their participation through the postal ballot in the category of service voters, he said.
He said that apart from 111 polling stations in the assembly constituency, 30 auxiliary polling stations have been set up for the convenience of voters in view of the COVID pandemic, out of these polling stations, 33 are sensitive, 5 are very sensitive.
The Deputy Commissioner informed that 96 registered voters will exercise their franchise in Kutheda polling station located on an island of Pong lake under this assembly constituency. He said that in the assembly elections held in the year 2017- 82 voters had cast their votes at this polling station while in the Lok Sabha elections-2019, 81 voters had cast their votes.
It is noteworthy that in the assembly elections held in the year 2017, out of 80793 registered voters of the assembly constituency, 58665 voters took part in the voting and a vote percentage of 72.61 was recorded in this election, whereas in the Lok Sabha elections-2019, out of the total 85410 voters of the assembly constituency, 59588 voters (i.e. 69.76 percent} voters cast their votes.
Fatehpur of Kangra district is among the three assembly segments and one parliamentary constituency going to polls on October 30 in Himachal
The by-election to the constituency was necessitated after the death of former Congress minister Sujan Singh Pathania, in February due to prolonged illness. Pathania represented Fatehpur in the current assembly. Baldev Thakur (BJP), Bhawani Singh Pathania son of Sujan Singh (Congress), Pankaj Kumar Darshi of the HJP, and independent candidates Ashok Kumar Somal and Rajan Sushant are in the fray for the Fatehpur seat.
In 2017, Sujan Singh Pathania of Indian National Congress won the seat by defeating Kripal Singh Parmar from Bharatiya Janata Party with a margin of 1284 votes and Pathania also defeated Baldev Thakur of BJP by a margin of 7217 votes in the 2012 elections.
Arvind Sharma is an award winning bi-lingual journalist with more than 20 years of experience.
He has worked with Divya Himachal, Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhasker, Vir Partap, Ajit and PTI.
In 2010, he was conferred the Himachal Kesri journalism award. He reports on the Tibetan Government in Exile, politics, sports, tourism and other topics. He lives in Dharamshala.
