E-Paper
90,000 voters to seal fate of 102 candidates as Shimla MC goes to polls today
As per the state’s election commission data, there are a total of 93,920 registered voters, of which 49,759 are male and 44,161 are female eligible to vote in the Shimla MC elections
With the Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) going to polls on Tuesday, a bipolar contest between arch rivals Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expected in the state capital.
More than 90,000 voters will vote to elect councillors across 34 wards. The results of the elections, which feature as many as the 102 candidates contesting on party symbols, will be declared on Thursday.
The elections to SMC are being held after a near year-long delay. The five-year term of the civic body ended in June 2022, but the elections could not be held due to court cases challenging the delimitation of wards — which had been increased from 34 to 41 by the previous BJP government.
The Congress after coming to power last year overturned the decision and the wards were again reduced to 34.
As per the state’s election commission data, there are a total of 93,920 registered voters, of which 49,759 are male and 44,161 are female.
Vikas Nagar ward has the maximum number of voters at 4,161, while Malyana has the lowest at 1,166. The election commission has set up 153 polling booths across the city.
The main contest is between Congress, which is currently in power in the state, and BJPm the principal opposition party. The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPIM), which once had a considerable support base in the state capital, has fielded candidates from only four wards.
With chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu spearheading Congress’ campaign, the party aims to make a comeback in the SMC after a gap of 10 years. The BJP, meanwhile, aims to retain the civic body that it won for the first time six years ago. In the 2017 elections, the saffron party had won 17 out of 34 wards.
This election is also the first test of Sukhu’s popularity after being appointed the chief minister nearly five months ago.
Education minister Rohit Thakur and panchayati raj Minister Anirudh Singh and senior BJP leader and former urban development minister Suresh Bhardwaj continued to hold press conferences to make claims and counter-claims ahead of polling.
