At 105, Himachal Woman Turns Up To Polling Station To Cast Vote

A 105-year-old woman, Naro Devi, cast her vote at Ladhan polling station falling under the Churah assembly constituency in Himachal Pradesh's Chamba district on Saturday.

Though the Election Commission of India (ECI) provided a voluntary facility to 80 plus aged electors to vote through ballot papers at their homes, Naro Devi preferred to cast her vote through the electronic voting machine (EVM) at the polling station today.

"I salute 1.2 lakh voters in the state who are above 80 yrs of age. Drawing inspiration from them, youth gets the opportunity to go ahead. We pay tribute to late (India's first voter) Shyam Saran Negi, it will be a fitting tribute to him to cast votes in large numbers," CEC Rajiv Kumar told ANI.

Voting for the 68-member assembly seats began in Himachal Pradesh today at 8 am which will continue till 5 pm.

Himachal Pradesh assembly deputy speaker Hans Raj is retrying his luck from Churah, whereas Congress fielded Yashwant Singh from here. NK Jaryal of AAP is also in the fray from this seat.
Churah constituency is reserved for Scheduled castes candidates. The constituency came into existence in 2008 following the delimitation of the Legislative Assembly constituencies.

This seat was a strong hold of Congress until BJP leader Hans Raj breached its vote bank in 2012. He is MLA from Churah since 2012.

A total of 412 candidates including 24 women contestants are in the fray for the 68-Assembly seats.
The counting of votes in Himachal Pradesh will take place with Gujarat on December 8.

In the last assembly elections in 2017, BJP had won 44 seats whereas Congress had to satisfy with 21 seat. Two independent candidates and one CPM candidate also emerged victorious at that time.

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