Poor show in hoshiarpur

Hoshiarpur: The Hoshiarpur seat saw a fall of 3% in the turnout on Sunday as compared to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The poll percentage stood at 61.63% as compared to 64.74% in 2014 and 64.9% in 2009. Though the two main contestants from here are Congress’ Raj Kumar Chabbewal and BJP’s Som Parkash, there still seemed a lesser charm this time among voters to cast their votes. The seat with highest literacy rate had a contest among two doctors — Chabbewal and Ravjot Singh of AAP — and two IAS officers — Som Parkash and BSP’s Khushi Ram. The lower percentage of votes has strangely come despite the visits of PM Narendra Modi, AICC chief Rahul Gandhi and Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Piyush Goel. Deputy Commissioner Isha Kalia said, “I am still to get exact polling figures from Bholath and Phagwara. So far, we have tentative average figures, which may see a fluctuation till late night. Also, there are a large number of postal service voters, 17,882 from Hoshiarpur, which have not been accounted for so far.” Deepkamal Kaur