Today in Himachal Pradesh, over 55 lakh voters will decide the future of political parties as the hill state is ready to vote and elect a new government in the Assembly elections.
Himachal Pradesh has had a trend of alternative government after every five years since 1982. The incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is striving hard to break this trend, while the Congress is focused on anti-incumbency. The new contender, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), is also aiming at its expansion in the hill state, hoping to present a strong performance in the polls.
The Election Commission (EC) has set up 7,881 polling stations across the 68 constituencies. In the 2019 General Elections, there was a 72.42 percent voter turnout across 7,229 polling booths, while there was a 74.61 percent turnout in the previous Vidhan Sabha elections across 7,521 booths. The voting percentage in the 2017 election was the highest since 2003.
The BJP got Union ministers and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, seen as an aggressive face of its Hindutva ideology, to campaign in Himachal. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra held rallies for the Congress, while her brother Rahul Gandhi preferred not to leave his ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ for the poll campaign. Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress’s first non-Gandhi chief in 24 years, campaigned too.
While the Congress has run a low-key campaign in PM Modi’s stronghold Gujarat, which votes next month, it will need to win Himachal to reverse its downslide and fire up its cadres. The party has failed to win or significantly impact nine states in about two years.
Early this year, the Congress lost power in Himachal’s neighboring state Punjab to the Aam Aadmi Party. The AAP is contesting Himachal, but its concentration is on Gujarat.
These elections come ahead of nine state elections due next year, including the Hindi heartland states of Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh — the only states where the Congress has chief ministers — and Madhya Pradesh. Besides Chief Minister Jairam Thakur from Seraj, significant candidates include minister Suresh Bhardwaj from Kasumpti, Congress Legislature Party leader Mukesh Agnihotri from Haroli, Vikramaditya Singh from Shimla Rural, and Congress campaign committee chief Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu.
Sullahin Kangra has the maximum number of voters, 1,06,976, while Lahaul-Spiti has the lowest, with around 25,000 voters. The EC’s highest polling station is in Spiti’s Tashgeng, situated at the height of over 15,000 ft, while Ka in Kinnaur has a booth for just 16voters.
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