Polling put off in Himachal's Kinnaur

The election commission Friday postponed voting in the landslide-hit Kinnaur assembly constituency for the June 23 Mandi parliamentary by-poll, an official said here. It will now be held June 27.

The commission took the decision after the Kinnaur administration in its report said polling is not possible as road links to 103 of the 118 polling stations in Kinnaur were snapped in landslides and floods that hit the area last weekend, a state election official told IANS.

The counting of votes, which was earlier scheduled June 27, will now be held June 30, he said.

Meanwhile, the campaigning for the Mandi by-election came to end Friday evening.

"The deputy commissioner has conveyed that polling parties have not been able to reach these polling stations that cater to 90 percent of the voters," Additional Chief Electoral Officer P.L. Negi told reporters Thursday.

The Mandi constituency, which includes Kullu, Mandi and some areas of Chamba and Shimla districts, besides the tribal-dominated assembly constituencies of Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti, is one of the biggest in the country.