Pushkar Singh Dhami among first to cast vote as Uttarakhand goes to polls

Dehradun: Polling was underway on Friday for the five Lok Sabha seats in Uttarakhand, with Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami among the first to cast his vote.

Dhami along with his mother and wife Geeta arrived at the Nagra Terai polling station in Khatima and stood in a queue to cast his vote.

Talking to reporters, the chief minister noted that there is great enthusiasm among people.

"Over the last ten years Uttarakhand has seen unprecedented development. People of all sections have benefited from it. They will vote to give a third term to Narendra Modi," Dhami said.

He also spoke of BJP's Sankalp Patra which talks about the need of a UCC on the lines of the one passed by the Uttarakhand Asssembly for the entire country.

"The Ganga of UCC which has originated from Uttarakhand will flow throughout the country," he said.

Former chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, who is the BJP candidate from Haridwar, also cast his vote along with his wife and two daughters and said he was confident of winning the seat by more than five lakh votes.

BJP national spokesman and Pauri Garhwal candidate Anil Baluni also cast his vote.

Voting across 11,729 polling stations began at 7 am and will go on till 5 pm, election officials said.

Apart from 40,000 police, home guard and Prantiya Raksha Dal personnel, 65 companies of central paramilitary forces have been deployed to ensure free and fair polling in the state.

A total of 1,365 polling stations have been categorised as critical and 809 as vulnerable, Additional Chief Election Officer Vijay Kumar Jogdande said.

The five seats going to polls in Uttarakhand are Haridwar, Pauri Garhwal, Tehri Garhwal, Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar and the lone reserved seat of Almora.

More than 83 lakh voters are eligible to decide the fate of 55 candidates in the fray.

Sitting BJP MPs Ajay Bhatt, Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah and Ajay Tamta have been fielded by the party from Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar, Tehri Garhwal and Almora.

The BJP has replaced its candidates in Haridwar and Pauri Garhwal.

Former chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat is contesting in place of Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank from Haridwar and Anil Baluni is in place of Tirath Singh Rawat from Pauri Garhwal.

The Congress has fielded former state unit chief Ganesh Godiyal from Pauri Garhwal, former chief minister Harish Rawat's son Virendra Rawat from Haridwar, Jot Singh Gunsola from Tehri Garhwal, Prakash Joshi from Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar and Pradeep Tamta from Almora.

Candidates from the Bahujan Samaj Party, Uttarakhand Kranti Dal and relatively smaller outfits and Independents are also in the fray. Still, straight contests are likely between traditional rivals -- the BJP and the Congress -- in all the seats.

The BJP won all five seats in the state in the 2014 and 2019 general elections.