Political News: Webcasting for 50% polling stations in Himachal bypoll

Fifty per cent of the polling stations in the bypoll of the Mandi parliamentary seat and three Assembly constituencies — Fatehpur, Arki and Jubbal-Kotkhai — in Himachal Pradesh would be connected through webcasting, state Chief Electoral Officer C.Paulrasu said.

The webcasting facility would be available in 1,383 out of the 2,796 polling stations.

He said to conduct free and fair elections and as a confidence-building measure for voters, arrangements for webcasting would be made in all critical and vulnerable polling stations.

In the parliamentary seat, webcasting will be conducted in 1,168 polling stations out of 2,365 polling stations.

He said 215 polling stations out of total 431 polling stations set up for the by-elections of Fatehpur, Arki and Jubbal-Kotkhai Assembly constituencies would be connected through webcasting.

The bypoll for the lone Mandi parliamentary constituency and three Assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh will be held on October 30 and the counting of ballots on November 2.

The bypoll for Mandi was necessitated after the death of BJP MP Ramswaroop Sharma. For the three Assembly seats — Jubbal Kotkhai (Shimla district), Fatehpur (Kangra district) and Arki (Solan district) — have fallen vacant after the demise of Narinder Bragta of the BJP, Sujan Singh Pathania of the Congress and former six-time Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh of the Congress, respectively.