Strategically situated along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China and the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan, the Ladakh Lok Sabha constituency has the distinction of setting up a polling booth for five members of a family in the remote village of Washi in the Leh district.
Washi is about 170 km from the capital town of Leh and the tented polling booth has been set up there to ensure 100 per cent participation in polling, chief electoral officer of Ladakh UT Yetindra M Maralkar said.
Voting for the Ladakh seat will be held on 20 May. It will be the first major election in Ladakh after the abrogation of Article 370 and splitting of the cold desert region from Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019, resulting in its transformation into a separate Union Territory.
The family in the Washi village consists of six members out of whom two males and three females are eligible to vote.
Of the 577 polling booths, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has established the highest polling station at Anley Pho at a height of 15,000 feet.
Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopters will carry officials and polling equipment to the rugged and snow-covered mountainous terrain.
The sprawling Ladakh constituency encompasses Leh and Kargil districts. While Leh is dominated by Buddhists, Kargil has a majority population of Shia Muslims. It has a total electorate of 1,82,571, including 91,703 males and 90,878 females.
The election authorities on Thursday conducted a Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) programme in Markha and Skyu villages in one of the far-flung regions of the Leh district. The local communities participated in the event.
The commissioning and preparation of BEL Make M-3 Type EVMs/VVPATs have also commenced at the Sindhu Sanskriti Kendra in accordance with the ECI guidelines.