Uttarakhand on Wednesday witnessed 62.75 per cent turnout in the seventh phase of the Lok Sabha polls.
The State, where 74 candidates contested five Lok Sabha seats, has three former Chief Ministers from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)–Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank from Haridwar, B. C. Khanduri from Pauri and Bhagat Singh Koshiyari from Nainital–in the fray.
Though the BJP had an upper hand in the State, the Congress led by Chief Minister Harish Rawat toughened the contest for the BJP.
There was a strong anti-incumbency factor against the Congress due to the “ill-treatment” of the 2013 disaster victims. However, the change of guard in February this year improved the position of the Congress .
The party had won all the five Lok Sabha seats in the 2009 elections. However, former Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna’s son Saket Bahuguna had contested for the seat in the 2012 by-elections but lost to BJP’s Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah by over 22,000 votes.
The two were again pitted against each other for the Tehri seat this time.
The turnout was almost nine per cent higher than in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.
According to the figures at by 5 p.m., the highest turnout of 68.57 per cent was witnessed in the Hardwar constituency, where Mr Nishank is pitted against Chief Minister’s wife Renuka Rawat. The lowest turnout of 49.09 per cent was witnessed in the Almora constituency, where Ajay Tamta from the BJP is pitted against Pradeep Tamta of the Congress, who had won the seat in 2009 .
In the Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar, Pauri, and Tehri constituencies, the turnout was 65.97, 52.29, and, 54.10 per cent respectively.
In 2009, the State had witnessed a turnout of 53.58 per cent.
