Polling begins in Uttarakhand

Dehradun: Polling to the 70 Assembly seats spread over 13 districts of Uttarakhand began amid tight security on Monday morning.

This is the fifth Assembly poll being held in the hill state since its creation in 2000.

A public holiday has been declared by the administration for the single-day polling in the state.

The ruling BJP is seeking a consecutive second term in office in the state while the Congress is trying to make a comeback after being routed by the BJP in the 2017 Assembly polls.

The Aam Aadmi Party has also thrown its hat in the ring this time. It has declared Col Ajay Kothiyal as its chief ministerial face.

A total of 81,72173 voters in the state will decide the fate of 632 candidates, including 152 independents.

As many as 36095 police, central paramilitary and PAC personnel have been deployed on poll duty across the



state.

There are 11,697 polling booths spread over 8.624 locations, Chief Electoral Officer Saujanya said.

For the first time, 101 all-women 'Sakhi' polling booths run by women have been set up in the state to encourage their participation in the polling process.

Similarly, six polling booths to be manned by differently abled have also been set up, she said.

Important BJP faces whose fate is to be decided in these polls are Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, his cabinet colleagues Satpal Maharaj, Subodh Uniyal, Arvind Pandey, Dhan Singh Rawat and Rekha Arya besides state party president Madan Kaushik.

Prominent faces from the Congress in the fray are former chief minister Harish Rawat, former minister Yashpal Arya, state party president Ganesh Godiyal and Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, Pritam Singh.