Guwahati: The time has come for voters to decide the political future of party leaders in Himachal Pradesh with voting for the assembly elections scheduled to start at 8 am on Saturday.
On November 10, the intense political campaigns came to a close, preparing the way for people to cast their ballots to choose a new administration. Today’s voting period will last till 5:00 PM. On December 8, the votes will be counted.
All 68 of the state’s Assembly seats, the bulk of which (44) were won by the BJP in the 2017 Assembly elections and left Congress with just 21 seats, are poised to go to the polls.
Voters must provide their Electors Photo Identity Cards (EPICs) in their possession at the polling place. In addition to their photo voter slips, they may also bring one other ID.
The religion of 412 candidates will be decided by a total of 55,92,828 electors, of which 27,37,845 are women, 28,54,945 are males, and 38 are third-gender voters, according to the Election Commission. This time, there are 24 female contenders in all.
On Saturday, voters in the state, which has alternated between the BJP and the Congress over the course of multiple elections, will cast their ballots.
The performance of the state and federal governments, as well as the BJP’s vision for the state, have given the party confidence in regaining power, but the Congress is expecting that some of its election pledges would have a significant impact on the electorate.
The Aam Adami Party (AAP), which is running for all 68 seats, also wants to make a name for itself in the state.
Along with these three parties, the Rashtriya Devbhumi Party (RDP), Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) are also contesting the election.
Star campaigners from the BJP included Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Amit Shah, the union home minister, and Jagat Prakash Nadda. Additionally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi ran for office in the mountainous state. Along with other prominent members of the party, such as Bhupesh Baghel, the chief minister of Chhattisgarh, Congress politician Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also descended upon the area.
Since his home state is Himachal Pradesh, JP Nadda also places a great deal of importance on today’s elections.
7,881 voting places have been set up in all, according to the Election Commission. The Kangra district has the most polling places (1,625), while Lahaul-Spiti has the fewest (92). There are 646 polling places in cities and 7,235 polling places in rural areas.
Besides, three auxiliary polling stations will also be set up at Sidhbari (Dharamshala), Bara Bhangal (Baijnath) and Dhillon (Kasauli).
The key constituencies include Seraj from where Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur is contesting again. Congress has put up Chetram Thakur who had contested from the seat last time also. Mahinder Rana is the CPI-M candidate.
Congress legislature party leader Mukesh Agnihotri is contesting his fifth election from the Haroli assembly segment in the Una district. BJP has pitted state spokesperson Ram Kumar against him.
Former Himachal Pradesh Congress chief Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, seen as a chief ministerial aspirant, is contesting from Nadaun. The BJP has fielded Vijay Agnihotri.
Former Himachal Minister and Congress leader Asha Kumari is contesting from Dalhousie. She is pitted against BJP’s DS Thakur and AAP’s Manish Sareen.
Senior Congress leader Kaul Singh Thakur is again fighting from his traditional seat of Darang against BJP’s Puran Chand Thakur and AAP candidate Sunita Thakur.
Vikramaditya Singh, son of former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, is recontesting from Shimla rural. BJP has fielded Ravi Mehta from the seat.
In Shimla Urban, Congress’ Harish Janartha is taking on BJP’s ‘chaiwala’ candidate Sanjay Sood. AAP’s Chaman Rakesh Ajta and CPI-M’s Tikender Singh Pawar are also in the fray.
In Nurpur, BJP has fielded a new candidate Ranveer Singh who is fighting against Ajay Mahajan of Congress and Manishi Kumari from AAP.
Bhawani Paathania, who won the recent by-election from Fatehpur, is fighting against BJP minister and candidate Rakesh Pathania. AAP has fielded former Himachal minister Rajan Sushant.
In Nagrota, Congress candidate RS Bali is fighting against BJP candidate Arun Kumar Mehra and APP candidate Umakant Dogra.
Speaker of Himachal Pradesh Assembly Vipin Parmar is fighting from Sulah against Jagdish Sapheia and AAP candidate Ravinder Singh.
In Sujanpur, Congress has again fielded Rajinder Singh Rana who defeated former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal in the 2017 elections. BJP has fielded Ranjit Singh from the seat and AAP has fielded Anil Rana.
Dr Janak Raj of BJP is taking on senior Congress leader Thakur Singh Bharmauri from Bharmaur. AAP has fielded Prakash Chand Bharadwaj.
In Jubbal Kotkhai, the Congress has fielded sitting MLA Rohit Thakur. He is fighting against Chetan Singh Bragta of the BJP. CPI-M has fielded Vishal Shangta and Shrikant Chauhan is an AAP candidate.
Former Congress state chief Kuldeep Rathore is pitted against CPI-M’s Rakesh Singha, BJP’s Ajay Shyam and AAP’s Attar Singh.
Minister Suresh Bhardwaj was shifted from Shimla to Kasumpti. Congress candidate Anirudh Singh and CPI-M candidate Kuldeep Singh Tanwar are also in the fray.
Meanwhile, 67 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) comprising 6,700 personnel and 15 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) companies have been deployed to hold free and fair Assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh.
Besides this, 50,000 government employees have been put on poll duty. As many as 25,000 police officers are also stationed across the state.
Teams from the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) and the State Disaster Relief Force (SDRF) comprising 800 personnel have also been posted.
In 2017, BJP swept the Himachal polls, bagging 44 of the total 68 seats while Congress managed to get just 21 seats.