TNI Bureau: On the first day of voting in Himachal Pradesh’s 68 seats in the hill state, over 55 lakh voters chose the destiny of 412 candidates, including Chief Minister Jairam Thakur, previous CM Virbhadra Singh’s son Vikramaditya Singh, and former BJP chief Satpal Singh Satti. This time, there are 24 female candidates, compared to 19 in 2017 and 34 in the 2012 assembly elections. The Election Commission established a total of 7,884 polling locations to ensure smooth voting across the state. The EC had also established its highest booth at a height of 15,256 feet at Tashigang which witnessed a voter turnout of around 98.8%, Kaza in Spiti section of Lahaul Spiti district, which would serve 52 voters.
While the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) seeks to retain power, the Congress seeks to reclaim lost support in the hill state. Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has positioned itself as the state’s third choice for the first time in the state’s well-established bipolar political scene.
The state recorded around 65.5 % of voter turnout on the first day of elections as of 5 PM, an ECI report stated. The BJP’s main concern is that it has 21 rebels. It is a matter of reputation for national chief JP Nadda, a Himachal veteran who served as a minister under Prem Kumar Dhumal. Mr. Dhumal is not running for re-election — he insists he retired on his own — but the “denial of ticket” made headlines, especially because many leaders cried on stage.
On the other hand, even in PM Modi’s stronghold Gujarat, which votes next month, the Congress ran a low-key campaign, but it will need to win Himachal to reverse its slide and energize its cadres. In the last two years, the party has lost nine states. Next year, nine more state elections will be held, including in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the only two states where the Congress has a chief minister.
The election Results will be declared on December 8.
