A helicopter ride into the rugged Dhauladhars, a six-kilometre trek at 4,500 metres above sea level and polling teams braving snow-prone mountain trails — Himachal Pradesh’s upcoming Panchayati Raj elections are once again throwing up extraordinary stories of democracy reaching the country’s remotest habitations.
For the first time in Panchayat polls, Bara-Bhangal — one of Himachal Pradesh’s most isolated villages tucked deep in the Dhauladhar ranges of Kangra district — will get its own polling booth. Voting in Bara-Bhangal is slated for the first phase of panchayat polls on May 26.
Though an auxiliary polling booth is set up at the village for Assembly and parliamentary polls since 2007, this is the first time in Panchayat polls that voters will participate in the democratic exercise at their village.
Situated at an altitude of 2,575 metres near the origin of the Ravi River, Bara-Bhangal can only be reached through arduous mountain treks — either a nearly 75-km route from Bir crossing a towering 4,700-metre-high pass or a 40-km trek from Holi in Chamba district.
The Election Department decided to establish an auxiliary polling booth in the remote village, which remains cut off from the rest of the state for several months every year due to extreme terrain and weather conditions.
Bara-Bhangal has over 450 registered voters, of whom about 150 are currently staying in the village. Remaining voters will cast their ballot at the main polling booth at Bir, the famous paragliding destination.
Kangra Deputy Commissioner Hemraj Bairwa said the polling party and election material would be airlifted by helicopter to Bara-Bhangal as there is no proper road connectivity to the village and access remains dependent largely on long mountain treks.
“This will be the first time that a polling booth is being set up in Bara-Bhangal as the panchayat elections are being conducted during the summer season. Earlier, polling could not be held there because elections usually took place in winter when the area remained inaccessible due to heavy snowfall and harsh weather conditions,” he said.
As a contingency measure, an advance reserve polling party would be sent on foot in case helicopter operations are suspended due to bad weather, he added.
While election officials in Kangra will take to the skies, polling staff in Chamba district’s remote Pangi Valley will have to battle high-altitude terrain on foot to ensure every vote counts.
Chask-Bhatori polling station under Gram Panchayat Sechu in Pangi is the highest polling station in Chamba district, located at an altitude of nearly 4,500 metres above sea level.
Surrounded by Pir-Panjal and Zanskar Himalayas, the village has 98 voters belonging to 19 families, including 57 men and 41 women.
Polling teams will first travel around 45 km from Killar to Chask by vehicle before undertaking a gruelling six-kilometre uphill trek to Bhatori carrying election material through rough mountain terrain vulnerable to sudden snowfall and extreme weather.