Polling begins in Himachal parliamentary bypoll

Polling for the second phase of Mandi parliamentary constituency began Thursday in Himachal Pradesh's rain-ravaged Kinnaur district.

Electors could be seen reaching polling stations even before voting started at 8 a.m. The vote cast will continue till 5 pm.

"There has been no report of any delay in starting the poll process," state Chief Electoral Officer Narender Chauhan told IANS.

He said 52,345 electors, including 25,285 women, would cast votes in 118 polling booths.

The election commission had postponed voting in the landslide-hit Kinnaur district as it was cut off from the rest of state owing to torrential rains June 16-18.

However, polling in the remaining 16 constituencies of the Mandi parliamentary seat was held June 23 and it recorded nearly 52 percent voter turnout.

The counting of votes will be held simultaneously June 30.

The bypoll was necessitated after Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh relinquished the seat following his election to the state assembly December 2012.

The Mandi constituency, which includes Kullu, Mandi and some areas of Chamba and Shimla districts, besides the tribal-dominated assembly constituencies of Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti, is one of the biggest in the country.