High voter turnout in Himachal

Shimla : Around 75 cent voters turned up to exercise their franchise in the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections Sunday where polling took place in a single phase this time for 68 assembly seats .

“Approximately 75 per cent voting has been recorded,” said Narinder Chauhan , chief electoral officer .

Voting was smooth and peaceful barring a few incidents of electronic voting machines not working at ten places which were later replaced .

Voting was reported to be the highest in Solan and Sirmaur districts.

This time the election campaign was a high pitched one with national leaders flying in to the hill state .

The main fight is between arch rivals the BJP and the Congress . Interestingly since 1985 no party has been able to repeat a term in Himachal .

The BJP campaign was led by chief minister P.K.Dhumal while the Congress side was led by five time former chief minister Virbhadra Singh . Dhumal is contesting from the Hamirpur seat while Singh from Shimla(rural).

The fate of 459 candidates will be known after a long wait on Dec 20 after Gujarat votes .

While the BJP and the Congress fought all the 68 seats . The BSP contested 66 seats . The newly formed Himachal Lokhit party(HLP) fielded candidates in 36 seats . TMC 25 , CPM 15, LJSP 17, SP 14, NCP 13 among others .

The state has 100 per cent electors photo identity cards  .