Sunday, 18 April 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
Prestige of CM Tirath Singh Rawat, Harish Rawat and Madan Kaushik at stake
The fate of the candidates in the crucial assembly by-elections of Salt in Almora district was sealed in the EVMs on Saturday after the end of polling. Being held under the contagion of Covid-19 which is increasingly getting intense, 43.28 percent voters had cast their franchise till 5 pm on the day. The assembly has a 95000 strong electorate.
The district magistrate of Almora and district election officer Nitin Bhadoria and Senior Superintendent of police (SSP) of Almora Pankaj Bhatt visited several polling booths and gave necessary directions to the officials. No major untoward incident was reported and the polling was by and large peaceful.
After the end of the voting on Saturday all eyes are now on May 2 when the EVMs would be opened for counting.
The by-election is necessitated due to the death of the BJP MLA Surendra Singh Jeena. The Congress party has fielded Ganga Pancholi from the seat who had given a tough fight to Jeena in the election of 2017. In an attempt to garner sympathy of voters the BJP has fielded Mahesh Jeena who is the elder brother of Late Surendra Singh Jeena from Salt. Though the result of the By-election would have no impact in the assembly where the BJP enjoys an overwhelming majority, the prestige of chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat, former CM Harish Rawat and newly appointed state chief of BJP Madan Kaushik is at stake here.
