Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister and BJP leader Jairam Thakur waves at supporters during an election campaign rally ahead of Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections, in Karsog. (PTI Photo)Gujarat, Himachal Legislative Assembly Elections 2022 Highlights, November 11: In the Himachal Pradesh polls scheduled for tomorrow (November 11), as many as 412 candidates will be contesting from 68 constituencies. The Election Commission has set up 7,881 polling stations. 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. With the maximum Assembly seats at 15, Kangra district is crucial in deciding the direction of the elections.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Friday said if his party forms government in Himachal Pradesh, a decision would be taken on providing one lakh jobs and return of the old pension scheme in the first cabinet meeting. In a tweet in Hindi, Gandhi said the Himachal Congress has resolved to provide five lakh jobs to the youth, Rs 1,500 per month to women and return to the old pension scheme (OPS).
In other news, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) entered into a pre-poll alliance for the next month’s Gujarat Assembly elections, as part of which the Sharad Pawar-led party will contest three of the total 182 seats in the state, the leaders of the two parties announced on Friday. In the 2017 Assembly elections, the two parties had contested the Gujarat elections separately.
Aam Aadmi Party Gujarat state President Gopal Italia during an election campaign rally for the upcoming Gujarat Assembly elections, in Surat, Wednesday. (PTI)
A day before the Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said if his party forms government, a decision would be taken on providing one lakh jobs and return of the old pension scheme in the first cabinet meeting.
In a tweet in Hindi, Gandhi said the Himachal Congress has resolved to provide five lakh jobs to the youth, Rs 1,500 per month to women and return to the old pension scheme (OPS).
"In the first meeting of the cabinet, a decision will be taken on 1 lakh government jobs and OPS," Gandhi said. "Congress's pledge is - progress of Himachal Pradesh, 'har ghar mein Lakshmi', empowerment of every section," the former Congress chief said. (PTI)
In the Himachal Pradesh polls scheduled for tomorrow (November 11), as many as 412 candidates will be contesting from 68 constituencies. The Election Commission has set up 7,881 polling stations.
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. With the maximum Assembly seats at 15, Kangra district is crucial in deciding the direction of the elections. Read more
With the walls of her home developing deep cracks and floor sunk-in during flash floods and heavy monsoon rains in August this year, Kamla Devi, from Trimat village of Bhattiyat, a backward constituency in Chamba district, is still waiting for promised compensation to start repair work.
In this Bhattiyat constituency of Chamba, ravaged by flash floods and landslides due to heavy monsoon rains in August this year, an independent candidate might dent vote share of both Congress and BJP candidates in Himachal Pradesh assembly polls slated for November 12.
With several houses and local infrastructure destroyed in flash floods mostly in Trimat and Banet areas, many families are still waiting for compensation and due to lack of basic infrastructure, roads and internet connectivity; daily life has become a struggle. Divya Goyal reports
As Himachal Pradesh votes Saturday, it is the culmination of a heated campaign, with expectations of a close contest. A confident BJP hit a speed-breaker with multiple rebellions, while the Congress faces the problem of multiple CM faces and their respective lobby of supporters.
For the BJP, the momentum was set by Prime Minister Modi’s multiple visits over a one-week period last month. The PM inaugurated a Vande Bharat train and the AIIMS at Bilaspur as key projects. This was in line with the party’s campaign in the run-up to the polls, even as the incumbent Chief Minister visited several constituencies to announce development projects worth over Rs 1,000 crore. Amil Bhatnagar writes
BJP’s candidate for Viramgam, Hardik Patel, for the upcoming Gujarat polls, Friday, was granted temporary relaxation of a bail condition that barred him from entering the limits of Mehsana by the Gujarat high court. The condition now stands relaxed for Hardik for a period of one year, until November 2023.
Hardik had submitted before the court that when the bail condition was imposed, the trial was pending before the court and has since been convicted, sentenced to two years' of imprisonment in July 2018 by a Visnagar court for rioting and arson in relation to a 2015 FIR. Read more
A residential society in Gujarat’s Surat district has put up banners opposing the entry of political parties seeking votes in the run-up to the Assembly elections in the state. Around 8,000 voters reside in Udhna’s Vijayanagar society which has erected the banners at its gates.
The large society, which has 700 plots mostly occupied by joint families, comprises people from Maharashtra who settled in Gujarat in 1985 and continue to work as labourers in Surat’s textile and diamond markets. In fact, Udhna is one of the most populated areas in Surat.
According to the residents, they have been demanding clean water, cheaper electricity and, most importantly, registration of the land under non-agriculture category, instead of the present kabja rasid or possession slip that has been issued to the residents. Read more
The BJP is banking on its usual narrative of welfare politics and corruption allegations against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to win the coming Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls. It is also hoping that its efforts to retain control of the civic body in the national capital will be aided by the overlapping schedules of the MCD polls and the Gujarat elections.
The MCD elections will be held on December 4 and votes will be counted on December 7. The Gujarat Assembly elections will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5. The results will be declared on December 8.
The BJP, a three-time consecutive winner of the MCD elections, feels the schedule “will give it an edge” over the AAP, a smaller party that will have to divide its attention between Delhi and Gujarat, where it is pulling out all the stops to make a mark. Abhinav Rajput writes
The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) entered into a pre-poll alliance for the next month's Gujarat Assembly elections, as part of which the Sharad Pawar-led party will contest three of the total 182 seats in the state, the leaders of the two parties announced here on Friday.
In the 2017 Assembly elections, the two parties had contested the Gujarat elections separately.
Making an announcement about the alliance, Gujarat Congress president Jagdish Thakor said, "NCP will fight the upcoming Assembly polls in the state in alliance with the Congress. The NCP will contest three seats - Umreth (Anand district), Naroda (Ahmedabad) and Devgadh Baria (Dahod district) as part of the alliance." These three seats are currently held by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). (PTI)
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Ahead of polling in Himachal Pradesh, the BJP on Friday expelled its state executive committee member Anu Thakur for "anti-party" activities.
According to a statement from the party, the BJP state president has expelled Thakur for a period of six years as she was indulging in anti-party activities and working against the party's official candidate. Thakur hails from Anni assembly constituency of Kullu district.
The BJP had earlier expelled five of its leaders from the party including state Vice president Kirpal Parmar. The BJP is grappling with rebels in 21 seats of the state. (PTI)
The Election Commission on Friday said seizures of cash, liquor, drugs, precious metals and other freebies ahead of the Gujarat Assembly polls had already reached record levels, with the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence detecting smuggling of toys and accessories worth Rs 64 crore at Mundra port.
In Gujarat, where polls are scheduled on December 1 and December 5, the EC said the seizures had already reached Rs 71.88 crore within days of the announcement of polls. In 2017, the total seizures were of Rs 27.21 crore, the EC said.
Himachal Pradesh votes on Saturday after a few weeks of intense political campaigning that illustrated the dependence of the ruling party on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the enormity of the task before the Congress that has not won a state election on its own since 2018. But the Congress will draw hope from the hill state’s almost three-decade tradition of voting out the incumbent government. The result is a compendium of ground reports, analyses, and interviews of the key political players in the battle for Himachal. Here are 10 articles you must read
The Election Commission, since the announcement of polls in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, have made record seizure of cash, liquor, drugs etc in the two states. In Himachal, the seizure by the poll body amounted to Rs 50.28 crore as compared to Rs 9.03 crore during the previous polls. In Gujarat, too, the amount shot up to Rs 71.88 crore as against Rs 27.21 crore during the 2017 polls.
Shankersinh Vaghela, 82, was the last political leader to experiment with a third force in Gujarat, launching the Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP) from a breakaway group of BJP rebels in 1996. It went on to form the government under his chief ministership, but could win only four seats in the one election it contested. Vaghela later merged his party with the Congress, only to quit the party as Leader of Opposition in 2017. He formed the Jan Vikalp Morcha, which failed to win any seats in the 2017 elections. He then joined the NCP, quitting it in a few months, and launched the Praja Shakti Democratic Party. Dismissive of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Vaghela is back to campaigning for the Congress. Read More
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA representing the Matar Assembly constituency in Gujarat's Kheda district has joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) after the ruling party denied a ticket to him from his seat for the upcoming Assembly elections.
Kesarisinh Solanki, who had won the election twice from the seat, joined the AAP, said the Arvind Kejriwal-led party's state unit president Gopal Italia on Twitter. "Kesarisinh Solanki ji, a popular, hardworking, fearless MLA of Matar Vidhan Sabha, has joined the Aam Aadmi Party today after getting inspired by the honest politics of Arvind Kejriwal. I heartily welcome Shri Kesari Sinh ji to the Aam Aadmi Party. Together we will form an honest government in Gujarat," Italia said in a tweet late Thursday night. The tweet carried a photograph, which showed Italia welcoming Solanki.
The fight for the Rampur (SC) seat in Shimla district is shaping up to a photo finish. The Congress nominee from this seat is its sitting MLA, who has been the winner for the past three elections. The one-time commando, who was deputed to the security detail of former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Nand Lal will face off against debutant Kaul Negi, 34, of the BJP.
Nand Lal won his first election in 2007 by a margin of 7,470 votes. He won again in 2012, by 9,471 votes. In 2017, the BJP fielded bureaucrat P S Draik from here, but he again lost to Nand Lal by 4,137 votes. Rampur has been a Congress stronghold for 40 years, as Padam Palace, the residence of former CM Virbhadra Singh, is located here. It is due to the influence of the heir to the erstwhile princely state of Bushahr that the Congress hasn’t lost the seat since 1982. Read More
The Congress, late on Thursday, released its second list of 46 candidates for the upcoming Gujarat polls. The list, a mix of experience and youth, included names of 21 sitting MLAs and 18 new faces.
Sitting MLAs Punja Vansh (Una) and Puna Gamit (Vyara) — whose names appeared in the second list — had already filed their nominations Thursday even before the party went public. Former Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani, Virji Thummar and Vikram Maadam also feature on the second list. The party has so far announced names of 89 candidates for the 182-seat Assembly. The first list had names of 43 candidates. Read More
Unveiling its first list of 160 names for the Gujarat Assembly elections Thursday, state BJP president C R Paatil called it a “generational shift”. But while 38 sitting MLAs were dropped, including six senior leaders who were part of the Vijay Rupani Cabinet, the list was more notable for the additions it made – including a leader whose name came up during the row over the remission of sentences of Bilkis Bano convicts, Hardik Patel and at least 30 other Patidar candidates, the wife of cricketer Ravindra Jadeja, and many leaders who just crossed over from the Congress, some as recently as Wednesday.
BJP Gujarat in-charge Bhupender Yadav announced the list in New Delhi in the presence of Paatil, Union minister Mansukh Mandaviya and the party’s national general secretary, Tarun Chugh. Yadav underlined that out of the 160 candidates declared, 13 are from Scheduled Castes and 24 from Scheduled Tribes (though all from reserved seats), while 14 are women. On these 160 seats, 69 sitting MLAs have been repeated whereas 38 have been changed, he said. At least 17 are Congress MLAs who defected to the BJP over the past five years, nine of them having won on Congress tickets in 2017. Read more
Having taken a “principled position” against freebies following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call against “revdi culture”, the BJP is doing a complicated balancing act in the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections, in which its rivals have been generous with promises.
In its ‘Sankalp Patra’ for Himachal Pradesh, released last Sunday, the BJP announced that if it returns to power in the state, girl students from classes 6-12 will get cycles while those pursuing higher education will get Scootys. The party also promised free LPG cylinders for women in BPL families, Rs 25,000 for pregnant women, etc. Liz Mathew reports
They may be taking solace in the fact that former BJP chief minister Vijay Rupani has proved true to form as an unassuming leader and led the way in announcing that he won’t contest this time. However, among Rupani’s supporters, there is also sadness in the disappearance from the scene of the “approachable, down-to-earth leader”.
Like he did on September 11 last year when he stepped down as CM quietly, after the party decided to change the entire Cabinet, 66-year-old Rupani has this time too stepped back from the limelight. It was after Rupani’s announcement that other senior BJP leaders, including former deputy CM Nitin Patel, Bhupendra Chudasama and Pradipsinh Jadeja, followed and said they too were opting out of the coming Assembly elections. Read more
Ahead of the November 12 Himachal Pradesh polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a fervent appeal to voters to script history by re-electing the BJP, saying every vote cast for the "lotus" will enhance his strength. While the hustings for the assembly polls in the hill state ended on Thursday, BJP cadre will deliver a letter carrying Modi's appeal along with his photo and signature to every household in Himachal Pradesh in the next two days.
"I have full faith that like last time this time too you will all bless the BJP. Every vote you cast in favour of the lotus (BJP's poll symbol) will enhance my strength," the prime minister said in his letter in Hindi. Modi said at a time when people are about to vote for the future of the state, "I want to offer you gratitude for your blessings and affections." He said the land of Himachal is so spiritual that even after one visit, a person can experience its splendour for a lifetime. (PTI)