Uttarakhand teaches how to vote

Dehradun: The hill state of Uttarakhand – traditionally considered a Congress stronghold - goes to polls on Wednesday with nearly 60 lakh voters set to decide the fate about 800 candidates to choose 69 MLAs.

In the 70-strong Uttarakhand Assembly, elections in one constituency has been countermanded due to the death of a Congress candidate.

The number of eligible voters in the state is six million and the key contest is between the Congress and the BJP. Bahujan Samaj Party and Uttarakhand Kranti Dal are also in the fray, threatening to change the state’s political equations

Interestingly, both Congress and BJP are going into the polls without declaring their chief ministerial candidates.

Congress had a majority in the

Security has been put on alert and nearly 75,000 personnel have been deployed to ensure no untoward incident takes place.

The challenge in the hill state lies in maintaining undisrupted communication with the polling stations.

Therefore, two IAF helicopters have been placed at the disposal of the election machinery here and five polling parties have been dropped by these choppers in remote Kapkot constituency on three feet of snow.

Nearly 1,200 polling booths have been declared sensitive and five helicopters will be used to conduct polling in other far-flung and snow-bound areas.

A general alert has been issued following a threat perception from terrorists and Maoists.

Nepal, Bhutan watch closely

While elections in Uttarakhand may not have evoked too much interest in India, but two of the country’s neighbours - Nepal and Bhutan - are observing them very closely, a sign of fledging democracies trying to establish themselves.

A team from Bhutan led by election officer Karma Namgyal is in Uttarakhand, to understand how elections in the largest democracy of the world are conducted.

For Namgyal and his team, this is an experience that will help sow the seeds of a form of government unknown to Bhutan

The choice was made keeping in mind the topographical similarity Bhutan shares with this hill state. "It's a rich learning experience,” he says.

While Bhutan makes a slow but steady transition, Nepal prepares to institutionalise democracy in the country.

The election commission of Nepal has also sent its team to observe how electoral exercise is being conducted in Uttarakhand.

" What we have told them is the 99 per cent of the whole exercise revolves around getting the electoral rolls made,” says Chief Electoral Officer of Uttarakhand, N Ravi Shankar.

(With inputs from Sumit Pande)

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