Click to play videoPauri: The cold wave across the country has hit the Uttarakhand polls, Chief Minister BC Khanduri was forced to trek 7 kilometers in snow to file his nomination. And now parties are worried that voters may not turn up for the January-end poll because of the weather conditions.
Most of the political parties including the incumbent BJP have already expressed reservations to the election commission about the January-end polling.
"We communicated to the commission but were told that the commission has studied the winter cycle of the last fifty years," Khanduri said.
With less than ten days left for the polling campaigning is yet to pick up in the hills of Uttarakhand even the lower ranges of the Shivaliks have been snowed in forcing both the candidates and public indoors.
There are 9744 polling booths in Uttarakhand and a petition in the Supreme Court last week had urged postponement of the elections as nearly 30 per cent of these booths are in snow bound areas.
There are even places like Harsil in Uttarkashi district where the polling parties have to carry voting machies and their luggage on mules and horses and walk for days to conduct elections.
The court has refused to interfere, the commission is hopeful that the weather would clear up by the polling date.
Chief Electoral Officer, Uttarakhand Radha Raturi said, "We have information that after January 23 weather will improve, so polling on the 30th should not be a problem."
In constituencies spread over vast hilly terrain where margins of victory at times are a few hundred votes, a low voter turnout can affect the outcome of polls and political parties are obviously worried.
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