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Journalism of Courage
The fate of 412 candidates will be sealed when Himachal Pradesh votes on Saturday. A high-intensity campaign by both the ruling BJP and the Congress ended on Thursday. A total of 28.5 lakh male voters, 27 lakh women voters and 38 voters belonging to the third gender will decide which party will form the government for the next five years.
The Election Commission has set up 7,881 polling stations across the 68 constituencies. In the 2019 General Elections, there was a 72.42 percent voter turnout across 7,229 polling booths, while there was a 74.61 per cent turnout in the previous Vidhan Sabha elections, across 7,521 booths. The voting percentage in the 2017 election was a record, the highest since 2003.
With the maximum Assembly seats at 15, Kangra district is crucial in deciding the direction of the elections. In 2017, the BJP won11 of the seats, while three went to the Congress and another to an Independent.
There are 20 reserved seats, including Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti. Lahaul was won by a BJP candidate, while Kinnaur had gone the Congress’s way.
ChiefMinister Jai Ram Thakur is contesting from Mandi’s Seraj,against the Congress’s Chet Ram Thakur. In the 2017 elections, the BJP’s CMface, Prem Kumar Dhumal, had lost from Hamirpur’s Sujanpur, which led to Thakur’s elevation as CM.
Inthe last elections, Vinod Kumar of the BJP had secured the highest margin of victory, 15,000, from Nachan, beating the Congress’s Lal SinghKaushal. The second highest margin of victory was 12,811 for Col. Inder Singh of the BJP from Balhin Mandi. Both candidates have been repeated, with Inder facing a BJPrebel, Sanjay Surehli.
Close fights were witnessed in Kinnaur, where the Congress’s Jagat SinghNegi won by a margin of 120 votes, while the party’s Inder DuttLakhanpal defeated the BJP’s Baldev Sharma by 439 votes in Hamirpur’s Barsar.
A challenge for the BJP will be rebel candidates in over 20 seats,compared to the Congress, whose candidates face rebels in aroundseven. In an election expected to go to the wires with low margins,rebels may hold the key to government formation.
TheElection Commission (EC), which organised several voter registration drives and awareness campaigns, has been focused on its ‘No Voter to be Left Behind’ policy. As part of its campaign, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Gupta himself visited the house of Shyam SaranNegi, independent India’s first voter, who passed away last week.
Inthe last elections, the BJP had won 44 seats while the Congress managed to secure 21. Rakesh Singha won the lone CPI(M) seat from Theog, which will again witness a triangular contest between Congress rebel InduVerma, former HPCC chief Kuldeep Rathore and Singha.
Sullahin Kangra has the maximum number of voters, 1,06,976, whileLahaul-Spiti has the lowest, with around 25,000 voters.
TheEC’s highest polling station is in Spiti’s Tashgeng, situated at a height of over 15,000 ft, while Ka in Kinnaur has a booth for just 16voters.
Following the end of campaigning, Prime Minister Modi appealed to voters inHimachal, asking them to come out in large numbers to exercise their democratic right and vote for a stable government.
