PTI
Shimla, Nov 11: More women exercised their franchise than men in Himachal Pradesh which recorded its highest turnout in Assembly polls at 74.61 per cent, according to official figure.
As many as 19,10,582 female voters exercised their franchise against 18,11,061 male voters in the hill state, where the BJP seeks to dislodge the ruling Congress on the issue of corruption while deflecting attacks on demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
The number of male voters in the electoral roll was about 74,200 more than female voters. In 48 out of 68 Assembly constituencies, the polling percentage of women was higher than men, whereas in only 15 seats the number of female voters was more than men.
In the biggest Kangra district, 4,61,278 women cast votes against 3,96,208 men, outnumbering them in all 15 Assembly seats. Similarly, in Mandi district, the number of votes polled by women was 2,96,898 against 2,71,725 by men.
Women voters outnumbered men in all the 14 constituencies in Hamirpur, Una and Bilaspur districts, polling 4,22,503 votes against 3,64,285 by men.
A whopping 74.61 per cent of the electorate voted in the November 9 election, as compared to 73.51 per cent in 2012, 71.61 per cent in 2007-08 and 74.51 per cent in 2003. Doon and Nalagarh constituencies in Solan district recorded the highest polling percentage of 88.95 per cent and 84.27 per cent, followed by Shillai 84.18 per cent, Seraj 83.20 per cent, Nahan 82.48 per cent and Sri Nainadevi 82.04 per cent.
The other four constituencies which recorded more than 80 per cent polling are Paonta (80.43 pc), Banjar (80.37 pc), Jubbal and Kotkhai (80.24 pc) and Balh (80.13 pc).
The most literate constituency Shimla (Urban) recorded the lowest polling percentage of 63.76 per cent, followed by Jaisinghpur 63.91 per cent, Baijnath 65.64 per cent, Bhoranj 65.84 per cent, Solan 66.65 per cent, Kusumpti 66.97 per cent, Sarkaghat 67.99 per cent and Hamirpur 69.11 per cent.
Poll results will be announced on December 18.
