Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls: Women voters outnumbered men in hill state, reveals EC data

Shimla: More women exercised their franchise than men in Himachal Pradesh which recorded its highest turnout in Assembly polls at 74.61 percent, according to official figure. As many as 19,10,582 female voters exercised their franchise against 18,11,061 male voters in the hill state, where the BJP seeks to dislodge the ruling Congress on the issue of corruption while deflecting attacks on demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST). [caption id=“attachment_4202159” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of people standing in long queue to cast their votes for Assembly elections in Mandi, Himachal Pradesh.  PTI[/caption] The number of male voters in the electoral roll was about 74,200 more than female voters. In 48 out of 68 Assembly constituencies, the polling percentage of women was higher than men, whereas in only 15 seats the number of female voters was more than men. In the biggest Kangra district, 4,61,278 women cast votes against 3,96,208 men, outnumbering them in all 15 Assembly seats. Similarly, in Mandi district, the number of votes polled by women was 2,96,898 against 2,71,725 by men. Women voters outnumbered men in all the 14 constituencies in Hamirpur, Una, and Bilaspur districts, polling 4,22,503 votes against 3,64,285 by men. A whopping 74.61 percent of the electorate voted in the 9 November election, as compared to 73.51 percent in 2012, 71.61 percent in 2007-08 and 74.51 percent in 2003. Doon and Nalagarh constituencies in Solan district recorded the highest polling percentage of 88.95 percent and 84.27 percent, followed by Shillai 84.18 percent, Seraj 83.20 percent, Nahan 82.48 percent and Sri Nainadevi 82.04 percent. The other four constituencies which recorded more than 80 percent polling are Paonta (80.43 pc), Banjar (80.37 pc), Jubbal and Kotkhai (80.24 pc) and Balh (80.13 pc). The most literate constituency Shimla (Urban) recorded the lowest polling percentage of 63.76 percent, followed by Jaisinghpur 63.91 percent, Baijnath 65.64 percent, Bhoranj 65.84 percent, Solan 66.65 percent, Kusumpti 66.97 percent, Sarkaghat 67.99 percent and Hamirpur 69.11 percent. Poll results will be announced on 18 December.