Himachal witnesses good turnout in initial hours of voting

Over 26 per cent turnout was recorded in the first four hours of polling on Sunday in four Lok Sabha seats of Himachal Pradesh where five MLAs are among 45 candidates in the fray.

Polling was underway in Shimla (SC), Mandi, Hamirpur and Kangra.

EVM snags delayed voting at nine polling stations. Voting restarted after the nine faulty EVMs were replaced, a state election officer said.

The first Indian voter Shyam Saran Negi cast his vote at tribal district Kinnaur's Kalpa polling booth falling under Mandi Lok Sabha seat. He was accorded a warm welcome by the election staff at the booth.

Chief Minister Shri Jai Ram Thakur along with his family members cast his vote at Bharari (Murhag) in Seraj Vidhan Sabha constituency of Mandi district.

A total of 7,730 polling stations have been set up in 4 constituencies -- Shimla (SC), Mandi, Hamirpur and Kangra -- in the state where 53,30,154 registered voters are registered.

The BJP has fielded state's Food and Civil Supplies Minister Kishan Kapoor in Kangra after dropping sitting MP Shanta Kumar. Kangra's Congress MLA Pawan Kajal is contesting against him.

In Hamirpur, three-time MP and former BCCI president Anurag Thakur is in the fray on a BJP ticket.

BJP's Pachhad MLA Suresh Kashyap is contesting against Solan Congress MLA Dhani Ram Shandil for the Shimla (SC) parliamentary seat.

Aashray Sharma, who is the grandson of former Union Telecom minister Sukh Ram, is contesting against BJP MP Ram Swaroop Sharma in Mandi.

His father Anil Sharma had to resign from the state cabinet after he decided to contest on the Congress ticket.

Anil Sharma's resignation followed an awkward phase during which the minister refused to campaign for his own party's candidate in Mandi, insisting that he would not takes sides.

Superintendent of Police (law and order) Khushhal Sharma said elaborate security arrangements have been made for the smooth conduct of the polls in the state.