Polling parties left for their respective stations from different parts of Uttarakhand on Monday. Among the 10,854 polling stations, over one hundred are located in remote locations- where parties will have to walk from a minimum of 4 Kms to maximum of 24 Kms.
Dumka in Chamoli district is the remotest of all, where the polling parties will have to walk 24 kms from last road head Pakhi to execute their duty. Dumka is home to over 300 villagers. Located in remote part of Uttarakhand, the village consists of about 68 houses and the local people are mainly engaged in animal husbandry and agriculture.
Ghudsalgoan in Tehri is the second remotest location, accessible only on foot by undertaking a trek of 19 kms. Pilang (Uttarkashi), Kanar (Pithoragarh) and Chauka (Champawat) each are located are 18 kms from the last road head.
Uttarakhand will go to poll on 15 February.
This time a total of 637 candidates are in fray for the 70 seat state assembly seats.
A total of 135 polling stations is accessible on foot only. Negotiating high altitude challenges and walking on rough hill terrain, the polling team will reach their station. Extremely cold conditions prevails in remote parts of the hill state and the polling team members will also have to face tough weather conditions.
This time 7,592,996 voters will exercise their franchise in the Uttarakhand Assembly election. This includes, 39.23 Lakh male, 35.72 Lakh female, 151 third gender and 97, 324 service voters.
Chief Electoral Officer Radha Raturi said, “Polling for Karanprayag assembly seat has been cancelled due to death of BSP candidate Kuldeep Kanwasi. We have informed the Election Commission of India.”
While Dharchula (5592.1502 Sqkm) is the largest assembly constituency area wise, Dharampur in district Dehradun with 1.83 Lakh voters is the largest assembly seat electorate wise
Purola in district Uttarakashi with over sixty-seven thousand voters is the smallest assembly constituency electorate wise.