E-Paper
Himachal Pradesh election 2022: In Shillai, BJP banking on Hattees. Details
Himachal Pradesh assembly election 2022: In Shillai, four candidates are in fray for the assembly election – BJP's Baldev Singh, Congress's Harshwardhan Chauhan, AAP's Naathu Ram Chauhan, RDP's Suresh Kumar.
The people of Shillai voted for the Himachal Pradesh Assembly Election 2022 on November 12 and the counting of votes will take place on December 8. A total of 76,343 voters are registered in Shillai, of which 42,121 are male and 34,221 are female.
In Shillai, four candidates are in the fray for the assembly election – BJP's Baldev Singh, Congress's Harshwardhan Chauhan, AAP's Naathu Ram Chauhan, and RDP's Suresh Kumar. BJP’s Baldev Singh lost to Harshwardhan Chauhan in the 2017 Himachal Pradesh assembly elections but the saffron party, this time, is banking on the Union Cabinet's decision to give the tribal status to the Hattee community in the Trans-Giri regions of Sirmaur district.
The Hattee population is spread across four segments in the Sirmaur district and comprises around 50% of the district’s population. At present, the BJP has three legislators in Pachhad, Nahan and Paonta Sahib, while Congress represents two assembly segments Shillai and Renuka.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union cabinet approved a constitutional amendment bill that seeks to grant tribal status to the Hattee community living in the Trans-Giri region. After the Bill becomes an Act, the community, which has a strength of around 3 lakh, will be able to derive benefits meant for Scheduled Tribes under existing government schemes such as post-matric scholarship, national overseas scholarship, national fellowship, top-class education, concessional loans from the National Scheduled Tribes Finance and Development Corporation.
Baldev Singh, who had been at the forefront of the campaign for Hattees, is up against the senior Congress leader Harshwardhan Chauhan, a five-time MLA from Shilai. In the 2017 Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly Election 2017, the Shillai constituency had four candidates for assembly seat contention. Shillai was one of 21 seats won by the Indian National Congress. Indian National Congress's Harshwardhan Chauhan won the election by upstaging Bharatiya Janta Party's Baldev Singh by a margin of 4,125 votes.
97.6% of the total votes were cast for the top two candidates. Indian National Congress's Harshwardhan Chauhan got a total of 29,171 votes, while Bharatiya Janta Party's Baldev Singh got 25,046 votes. Swabhiman Party's candidate Mani Ram grabbed 850 votes to finish in third place. The top three parties secured 52.5%, 45.1% and 1.5% respectively.
