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Himachal Pradesh elections: Brisk voting in villages, polling picks up pace in towns
Chief minister Jai Ram Thakur, Congress’s Pratibha Singh among early voters; 412 candidates in fray and estimated 55.92 lakh voters expected to exercise franchise today
Polling for the 13th Vidhan Sabha elections in Himachal Pradesh was off to a brisk start in the villages, while it was picking up pace in the towns and high-altitude areas of the hill state as the day wore on. Election department officials said the polling was peaceful.
Also read: Himachal Pradesh assembly election LIVE: Anurag Thakur, his father & ex-CM cast votes
Chief minister Jai Ram Thakur and state Congress chief Pratibha Singh were among the early voters who exercised their franchise as polling began at 8am and will continue till 5.30pm on Saturday.
The counting of votes is scheduled for December 8.
Thakur voted with his family at the polling station at Aaun in Murhag panchayat of the Seraj assembly segment from where he is contesting as the BJP candidate. Thakur is contesting for the seventh time. He has won five elections consecutively and lost one earlier. Pratibha Singh cast her ballot at her family’s stronghold of Rampur Bushahr in Shimla district.
State urban development minister Suresh Bhardwaj exercised his franchise at a polling station at the Tibetan Central School in Chotta Shimla. “Voting is brisk in the rural areas but it’s slow in the cities. Shimla has a trend where voting picks up slowly. In my Kasumpti assembly segment, the voting is brisker,” Bhardwaj said after casting his vote. The BJP leader has been a four-time legislator from Shimla Urban and this time he is contesting from nearby Kasumpti, which has remained a Congress citadel.
“I’m excited to stand in queue to vote for the first time,” said a young student, Radhika Sharma, in Shimla.
Direct contest between BJP, Congress
There are 412 candidates in the fray and an estimated 55,92,828 voters are expected to exercise their franchise in the state. Of the total, 28,54,945 are men and 27,37,845 women voters.
The BJP and Congress are contesting all 68 assembly seats.
The BJP built its campaign on the strength of its double-engine growth with development projects undertaken by the state with the Centre’s backing. It hopes to break the trend of power alternating between the Congress and it.
The Congress rolled out 10 guarantees by promising the restoration of the old pension scheme, five lakh jobs and ₹1,500 a month to women.
The Aam Aadmi Party is contesting 67 seats. It launched its campaign promising freebies but its campaign lost steam as the election neared.
The Bahujan Samajwadi Party is fighting in 53 constituencies, the Rashtriya Devbhoomi Party in 29, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 11, the Himachal Jan Kranti Party in six, the Hindu Samaj Party and Swabhiman Party in three each and the Himachal Janata Party, Bharatiya Veer Dal, Sainik Samaj Party, Rashtriya Lok Niti Party and Communist Party of India in one each.
There are 99 independent candidates in the fray.
HP elections at a glance
Total assembly seats: 68
Total candidates: 412, including 24 women
Total voters: 55,92,828
Male voters: 28,54,945
Female voters: 27,37,845
Third gender voters: 38
First-time voters: 1,93,106
Voters above 80 years: 1,21,409
People with disabilities: 56,501
Polling stations: 7,881
