Campaigns end,state readies for Sunday polls

The state’s star campaigners: Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and PCC president Virbhadra Singh are fighting tooth and nail to grab the chief ministerial seat and even on the last day of campaigning addressed more than 10 election rallies in Kullu,Bilaspur and Kangra. Both candidates have managed to campaign in all 68 constituencies.

This is also the first time the polls are being held after Delimitation,which has seen major changes come about in most of the constituencies in terms of geographical boundaries. The new factors have played havoc with the contest and selection of candidates.

Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal is contesting from a new constituency of Hamirpur after his constituency of Bamson was scrapped. Virbhadra Singh has chosen Shimla (Rural) – a new assembly constituency – in place of Rohru,which has been reserved for SC candidates. This is also the first time that Congress has made an exemption for a sitting Lok Sabha member to contest Assembly polls and lead the campaign since Virbhadra is the only mass leader in the state.

The state’s additional Chief Electoral officer,P L Negi said: “All arrangements for free,fair and peaceful polling have been made. Location of all polling booths are available on Google map and will be monitored in real time by the Election Commission.”

Some of the key star campaigners in the poll included Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi,AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi,Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani,senior BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj,Arun Jaitely,Ravi Shankar Prashad,Rajnath Singh,BSP supremo Mayawati and film stars Hema Malini and Vinod Khanna.