Himachal Election 2022 Live Voting Updates: Voters holding their identification cards wait in a queue to cast their votes for the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections, at a polling station in Paonta Sahib, in Sirmaur district, November 12, 2022. (PTI)Himachal Pradesh Election 2022, Voting in Himachal Pradesh Highlights: Over 74 per cent voter turnout has been recorded in Himachal Pradesh which went to polls on Saturday, according to latest figures. As per the ‘approximate trend’ available on Sunday morning, 74.05 of the total electorate of Himachal Pradesh had cast their vote. In 2017, the turnout was recorded at 75.6 per cent. The hill state has an electorate of over 55 lakh.
The voting commenced on a tardy note and gradually picked up pace. Himachal Pradesh, where the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress are locked in an aggressive direct fight, recorded only five per cent voter turnout in the first hour. Till 1 pm, 37.19 per cent polling was recorded. The highest polling of 41.89 per cent was recorded in Sirmour district, followed by 41.17 percent in Mandi, the home district of Chief Minister Jairam Thakur. The high altitude district of Lahaul and Spiti recorded the lowest of 21.95 per cent while Chamba saw 28.35 per cent voting till 1 pm.
Meanwhile, election strategy has gained strength in Gujarat, which goes to polls on December 1 and 5. Unveiling its manifesto for Gujarat polls on Saturday, the Congress said it will not only ‘apply brakes’ on the rampant privatisation of healthcare and education sectors in the state, but will also restore the original name of Narendra Modi stadium at Motera and intervene in the changes being made to Mahatma Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad.
Polling officials wait to collect election materials at a distribution centre, ahead of Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections, in Palampur, November 10, 2022. (PTI)
Jai Ram Thakur, Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, campaigning in the state for General Assembly elections. (Express Photo)
For live news updates on Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections, click here.
Over 74 per cent voter turnout has been recorded in Himachal Pradesh which went to polls on Saturday, according to latest figures.
As per the 'approximate trend' available on Sunday morning, 74.05 of the total electorate of Himachal Pradesh had cast their vote. In 2017, the turnout was recorded at 75.6 per cent. The hill state has an electorate of over 55 lakh.
Voting began at 8 am on Saturday on a slow note but picked up as the day progressed and the sun warmed the winter chill.
In the first hour, around five per cent turnout was recorded, while by 11 am, it was 17.98 per cent. It notched up to 37.19 per cent by 1 pm and 55.65 per cent till 3 pm. (PTI)
The Congress on Saturday complained to the Election Commission against carrying of EVMs in private vehicles which is in violation of the rules.
In a complaint to the Chief Election Officer, Himachal, the Legal and Human Rights Department of the state Congress said the EVM machines have been seen to be carried to their stations (strong rooms) in unauthorised private vehicles.
Terming it an "utterly unfortunate incident" in his Vidhan Sabha constituency, Rampur, Congress legal cell working chairman Pranay Pratap Singh said that as per the protocol, the vehicles hired to carry such machines to the strong rooms are to be requisitioned beforehand by the Election Commission or the returning officers. (PTI)
Two prominent figures are missing from the short, second list of nominees the BJP put out on Friday for the Gujarat Assembly elections in December.
This takes the total number of sitting MLAs dropped to 40 and the total number of BJP candidates declared to 166, in which, all 89 seats going to the polls on December 1 have been covered.
Of the six seats whose nominees were announced today, the names of Bhavnagar East MLA Vibhavari Dave, who was a minister in the Vijay Rupani Cabinet, and of Jankhana Patel, the sitting MLA from Choryasi, were missing. Sejal Pandya is the candidate for Bhavnagar East, while Choryasi goes to Sandeep Desai. Read more
One of the biggest surprises of the BJP’s first list for Gujarat was the ticket to cricketer Ravindra Jadeja’s wife Rivaba from Jamnagar North. The BJP dropped its sitting MLA, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja alias Hakhuba, to nominate her.
This is quite a step up for the 31-year-old wife of the star Indian all-rounder. A mechanical engineer who wanted to become a bureaucrat, Rivaba had joined the BJP in March 2019, months after the star couple had called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi in November 2018.
While Ravindra is a native of Jamnagar and the couple spend considerable time in the city, they are based in Rajkot, about 100 km away, where they run a restaurant. Read more
At least one sitting Bharatiya Janata Party MLA and four former legislators have threatened to contest as independents after they were denied tickets by the party for the two-phase Gujarat Assembly elections to be held on December 1 and 5.
While some of these disgruntled leaders have said they will make their next move after consulting supporters, former BJP MLA and a known tribal face of the party, Harshad Vasava, has already filed his nomination papers on Friday as an independent from Nandod (Scheduled Tribe reserved) seat.
Notably, Harshad Vasava is the president of Gujarat BJP's Scheduled Tribe Morcha and had represented the erstwhile Rajpipla seat between 2002 and 2007 and from 2007 to 2012.
Nandod in the Narmada district is currently held by Congress. The BJP has fielded Dr Darshana Deshmukh from the seat. Unhappy over the announcement, Harshad Vasava resigned from his post in the BJP and submitted his nomination papers for the Nandod seat on Friday. (PTI)
Union minister Prahlad Singh Patel on Saturday said he saw "fear" in Baramati, the home turf of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, and said people of the Lok Sabha constituency think BJP should win from there in 2024 polls.
The Baramati Lok Sabha seat in Pune district is currently represented by Supriya Sule, daughter of Sharad Pawar. Sule's cousin and former deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar is MLA from the Baramati Assembly constituency.
"People in Baramati think BJP's candidate should become MP in 2024 Lok Sabha Elections. I saw 'fear' there and its certificate will be seen in 2024 (in terms of people electing BJP candidate as MP)," Patel told reporters on the last day of his two-day tour of Baramati. (PTI)
Lashing at PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti for her remarks of Election Commission of India, BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh on Saturday said her allegation that ECI has become puppet of BJP reflects her "frustration". PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday said that the BJP had subverted the Election Commission to an extent that it was no more an independent body.
She alleged that the Election Commission has become 'an extension' of the BJP. 'It will do whatever the BJP tells it to do.' 'In Himachal Pradesh, the BJP leadership campaigned for polls on religious basis. Muslims are being threatened openly but election commission remains a silent spectator,' the PDP leader had said earlier in the day in Khiram area of Anantnag district.
BJP leader in the Union Territory Tarun Chugh said her comments were a result of things not going her way anymore. "Her (Mehbooba Mufti) allegation that election commission of India has become puppet of BJP, purely reflects her frustration, as she is aware of her party's downfall in the democratic set up in Jammu and Kashmir," Chugh said on Saturday. (PTI)
Slain BJP leader Haren Pandya's wife Jagruti Pandya on Saturday objected strongly to a purported statement by Ellisbridge MLA Rakesh Shah comparing the party's vote share in the constituency during his tenure with that during her husband's time.
Shah, however, said he never spoke about the party's vote share in this constituency located in Ahmedabad city when Haren Pandya won from it twice in the 1990s.
In a letter to the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) city unit chief Amit Shah (not the Union home minister), Pandya quoted a media report where Rakesh Shah allegedly said that compared to 66 per cent votes won by Haren Pandya in 1995, the party's vote share rose to 80 per cent when he contested. (PTI)
A total of 324 candidates have filed nominations for the two-phase polls to the 182-member Gujarat Assembly since the process began on November 5, an official said on Saturday.
While 316 candidates have filed nomination forms for the first phase of polling on December 1, eight for the second phase on December 5, a release from the state's chief electoral officer said. Votes will be counted on December 8.
As per information made available by poll authorities, 70 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidates have filed nominations, followed by 52 from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 48 from the opposition Congress, 21 from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), nine from the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) and several Independents. AAP candidates have filed 14 nominations for seats in Surat district, 12 in Rajkot and eight in Kutch, it said. (PTI)
Two brothers will lock horns from rival camps in Ankleshwar assembly constituency in Bharuch district for the Gujarat Assembly elections.
The BJP has fielded its sitting MLA Ishwarsinh Patel, 58, while the Congress his brother Vijaysinh Patel, 61. The Patel brothers belong to Kudadra village in Hansot taluka of Bharuch district. Their father the late Thakoresinh Patel was also the BJP MLA from Ankleshwar in 1990.
Soon after the candidature of Ishwarsinh Patel was announced, a large number of BJP workers and leaders reached his office and congratulated him for leading the party for the fifth consecutive term. Read more
Braving dropping temperatures and advancing years, a number of centenarians turned up for Himachal Pradesh polls on Saturday.
105-year-old Nari Devi in Churah in Chamba and 103-year-old Pyar Singh in Shimla were among the centenarians who turned up to exercise their franchise.
There are over 1.21 lakh people above 80 years of age in the hill state with as many as 1,136 centenarians. The Election Commission had made special arrangements for the elderly and persons with disabilities at polling stations across the state.
The voting in Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections has concluded. The final voter turnout is yet to be announced.
EVMs and VVPATs are being sealed and secured at polling booths in Dharamshala and Shimla, news agency ANI reported. The counting of votes will take place on December 8.
Vikramaditya Singh and his mother Pratibha Singh cast their votes on Saturday at Rampur. Vikramaditya Singh is the 32-year-old son of six-time Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and the MLA from Shimla Rural on whom lies the burden of taking forward his father’s towering legacy and the Congress’s hopes in the Assembly elections.
In 2017, Vikramaditya took over from his father as the representative of Shimla Rural and that year, for the first time in the state’s history, a father-son duo took the oath of office. This time around, the MLA is without the reassuring presence of his father who died in July 2021. For many Himachalis, the former CM’s wife Pratibha, who is now the state Congress president, and Vikramaditya are extensions of “Raja Sahab”, as Virbhadra was popularly known.
Himachal Pradesh, where the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress are locked in an aggressive direct fight, recorded a voter turnout of 55.65 per cent till 3 pm on Saturday, news agency PTI reported.
At the Atal Chowk in Tissa of Churah, an SC reserved constituency in Chamba district, the daily hustle bustle is on — shopkeepers around busy in their work, groups of students and some others waiting for a bus.
A little over two years ago, the chowk in Tissa, was christened after former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Bang in the middle stands a shining statue of the former PM. In the backdrop, are several posters of PM Narendra Modi, making a vote appeal for Hans Raj (39), two-time local BJP MLA, in fray again. Pitted against him is Congress’s Yashwant Singh Khanna (43), a first-timer, and a government teacher who has resigned to contest polls.
The mood of voters in Tissa, a town that witnessed an alleged rape incident taking a communal color and subsequent violence ahead of 2017 Himachal Pradesh assembly polls, seems to be far from the scene on the surface. Even as BJP flags hang outside almost every shop near the chowk, the voters here are not silent— with the undercurrents of anger over pending development works and lack of basic amenities clearly visible, and in unison. Divya Goyal reports
Unveiling the manifesto for Gujarat Assembly elections, the Congress party Saturday said it would not only apply brakes on rampant privatisation of healthcare and education sectors in the state, but will also restore the original name of Narendra Modi stadium at Motera and intervene in the changes being made to Mahatma Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, accompanied by Jagdish Thakor, president of Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee, and other leaders from the state unveiled the manifesto titled ‘Jan Ghoshna Patra 2022-27’. Read more
From Shimla to the icy heights of Spiti, people across Himachal Pradesh voted on Saturday to elect a new state government. It is a crucial test for the BJP hoping to beat precedent and return to power as well as for the Congress looking for electoral revival.
Voting began at 8 am on a slow note but picked up as the day progressed and the sun warmed the winter chill. By 1 pm, 37.19 per cent of the electorate had voted, the Election Commission said. Polling will continue till 5 pm in all 68 assembly constituencies.
The highest polling of 41.89 per cent till 1 pm was recorded in Sirmour district, followed by 41.17 per cent in Mandi, Chief Minister Jairam Thakur's home district. The high altitude district of Lahaul and Spiti recorded 21.95 per cent. (PTI)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday announced candidates for six more seats in the Gujarat Assembly elections. With this, the ruling party has announced the names of candidates for all 89 seats, out of the total 182, that will go to polls in the first phase of the two-phase elections.
Overall, the BJP has so far named candidates for 166 Assembly segments as it had issued the first list of 160 candidates on November 9. Gujarat will go to polls in two phases on December 1 and December 5 and counting of votes will be done on December 8. Candidates can file their nomination forms for the first phase till 14 November.
As per its second list, in Bhavnagar East constituency, the BJP has fielded Sejal Pandya instead of Vibhavriben Dave, who was a minister in the erstwhile Vijay Rupani-led government. From Dhoraji seat, the party has given a ticket to former vice-chancellor of Saurashtra University Mahendra Padaliya.
The party has fielded Mulu Bera from Khambhalia seat, Dheliben Odedra from Kutiyana, Hitesh Vasava from Dediapada (ST-reserved seat) and Sandeep Desai from Choryasi seat. (PTI)
PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday accused the BJP of subverting the Election Commission to an extent that it was no more an independent body.
She alleged that the Election Commission has become "an extension" of the BJP. "It will do whatever the BJP tells it to do."
"Election commission has been subverted to an extent that it is no more the independent body of which the country was proud. Our election commissioners were invited by other countries to seek expert advice on conducting elections," Mufti told reporters in Khiram area of Anantnag district.
She said the Election Commission has failed to act against the BJP even though the ruling party has violated the laws. (PTI)
Stating that the people of Himachal Pradesh are aware of their rights, especially when it comes to voting, BJP national president JP Nadda Saturday said: "So, polling is always good here. I see zeal. People want to give BJP another chance. I also see that the people love and trust Prime Minister Narendra Modi and want the BJP government to return. I see a favourable atmosphere for BJP."
Referring to the alternating party trend, Nadda said: "It will definitely change. People have made up their minds to change the tradition because the development in the last five years can be seen on the ground. So, there's an atmosphere of joy and people want the government repeated.
"We definitely are in comfortable majority. The election has been contested under the leadership of Jairam Thakur and he will continue (to be the CM face)," he added.
On Rahul Gandhi not campaigning for the Himachal elections, Nadda said: "They are careerist leaders. They realised that they will gain nothing in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. Once they feel they are winning or can win, they will all come for credit. They know they won't gain anything. So they won't be seen." (ANI)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded the daughter of a 2002 post-Godhra Naroda Patiya massacre case convict from Naroda seat of Ahmedabad for the upcoming Assembly elections.
Payal Kukrani (30), the daughter of Manoj Kukrani who is one of the 16 convicts in the Naroda Patiya riots case in which 97 Muslims were killed, is also among the youngest candidates fielded by the ruling party this time. She is an anaesthetist. The Gujarat High Court had in 2018 upheld the conviction of Manoj Kukrani and 15 others in the Naroda Patiya riots case. Kukrani, who was sentenced to life imprisonment, is currently out on bail.
Talking about the BJP's move to field her, Payal Kukrani said, "I am grateful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, state BJP president C R Paatil, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and all party workers and members. My mother is a corporator and my parents have long been associated with the BJP. I had participated in the election process in the past." (PTI)
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India Rajiv Kumar Saturday said: "There are 157 polling stations across Himachal Pradesh that are being managed solely by women staff. In Hamirpur district, a crèche facility has also been made available so that those who come with children don't have to face any issue."
Speaking to news agency ANI, he further said: "I salute the 1.2 lakh voters in the state who are above 80 years of age. Drawing inspiration from them, youth gets the opportunity to go ahead. We also pay tribute to late Shyam Saran Negi. It will be a fitting tribute to him to cast votes in large numbers."
"There are 56,000 PwD (Persons with Disabilities) voters in Himachal. We have made a lot of arrangements for them. 37 polling stations are being managed solely by PwD staff. This is a tool of their employment which we wanted to display," he added. (ANI)
The Congress party Saturday released its election manifesto for the ensuing Gujarat Assembly polls. Rajasthan Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot was present on the occasion.
Himachal Pradesh, where the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress are locked in an aggressive direct fight, recorded a voter turnout of 17.98 per cent in the first three hours till 11 am on Saturday, Election Commission said.
The voting commenced on a tardy note and gradually picked up pace in a state where the BJP is eyeing history by repeating its government, while the Congress is urging voters to go by the tradition of voting out the incumbent government. The voting started on a slow note with only around five per cent polling recorded in the first hour.
Till 11 am, the highest polling of 21.92 per cent was recorded in Mandi, the home district of Chief Minister Jairam Thakur.
Sirmour district recorded 21.66 per cent polling, Solan 20.28 and Kinnaur 20 per cent, according to the EC. Lahaul and Spiti district recorded the lowest polling of 5 per cent in the first three hours. (PTI)
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has prohibited exit or opinion polls regarding the Vidhan Sabha elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat from Saturday. (ANI)
Himachal Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Saturday shared a couple of videos and photos on their official Twitter handle saying: "Beating all odds, polling personnel made it possible to set up polling booths well in time across the state. Where duty before self is our motto, no voter to be left behind is our target! Now it is your duty to cast your vote."
Stating that voting is the biggest contribution to a democratic system, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan Saturday requested the people of Himachal Pradesh to utilise their right to vote and maintain the continuity of the progress of the state.
After casting his vote for the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections, Union Minister and BJP MP from Hamirpur Anurag Thakur Saturday said: "We are contesting under the leadership of Chief Minister Jairam Thakur. The Himachal government did good work under his leadership for five years. So, we are confident that the people will bless us once again so that the double-engine government comes back." (ANI)
While polling for the crucial Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections is underway, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal Saturday urged the people of the state to exercise their franchise for their children and for the better future of the state.
With 16 rallies in a span of five days in Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath again emerged as a key campaigner for the BJP.
Fresh from leading the party to an election win in UP, Adityanath in his speeches attacked the Congress and reiterated the BJP’s core issues.
In the 2017 Himachal elections too, months after he had emerged as the surprise winner of in the CM tussle within the BJP for the politically crucial UP, Adityanath had been one of the party’s star campaigners. Read more
While polling for the crucial Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections started at 8 am itself and is currently underway, the state has recorded only 5.02 per cent voter turnout till 9 am. While Sirmaur witnessed 6.26 per cent voter turnout, Lahaul recorded just 1.56 per cent. (ANI)
As voting began for the Himachal Pradesh polls, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said the state will vote for the return of the old pension scheme and employment.
"Himachal will vote for OPS, Himachal will vote for employment and Himachal will vote for 'Har Ghar Lakshmi'," Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi.
"Come, vote in large numbers, and make your valuable contribution to the progress and prosperous future of Himachal," the former Congress chief said, appealing to the voters of the hill state. Gandhi is in Maharashtra undertaking the party's 'Bharat Jodo Yatra'. (PTI)
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jairam Thakur on Saturday urged voters to come out in big numbers and enthusiastically participate in the "festival of democracy". He said every vote will help build a prosperous Himachal Pradesh.
"First vote, then refreshments. Dear fellow state residents, today is the day of voting. My humble request to all the voters is to participate in this festival of democracy with full enthusiasm," he said in a tweet in Hindi. "Vote in huge numbers, your one vote will help build a prosperous Himachal," he added.
The chief minister also responded to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who on Twitter urged the people to enthusiastically participate in the polling. Thakur said on Modi's call, the people of Himachal will create a new voting record. (PTI)
Former Gujarat minister Parshottam Solanki, seven-time MLA Kunwarji Bavaliya, Morbi 'hero' Kantilal Amrutiya, Indian cricketer Ravindra Jadeja's wife Rivaba and Gujarat AAP president Gopal Italia are among the 10 prominent candidates who will be in the fray in the first phase of Assembly elections to be held on December 1.
In the first round, 89 of the total 182 Assembly seats will go to polls and prominent political parties have declared their candidates for almost all these constituencies.
Following are the names of the 10 prominent candidates across main parties - the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) - and Assembly seats from where they will be contesting. (PTI)
The BJP has released a new list of six candidates for the ensuing Gujarat Assembly elections. The first phase of Assembly elections will be held on December 1.
In the first round, 89 of the total 182 Assembly seats will go to polls and prominent political parties have declared their candidates for almost all these constituencies.
Pointing out that the BJP formed governments in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur and Goa yet again, Union Minister and BJP MP from Hamirpur Anurag Thakur Saturday said: "It will happen this time in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, as well... Congress has a habit of making false promises and the public knows their real face." (ANI)
Himachal Pradesh Congress chief Pratibha Singh and her son and party MLA Vikramaditya Singh cast their votes for the Assembly elections at Rampur in Shimla on Saturday.
Speaking to the media, Pratibha Singh said: "We would like to tell the people of Himachal Pradesh to vote for development and work. Congress always worked for development and in the time to come only Congress can take that work forward in the state. We're confident of winning 40-45 seats." (ANI)
While polling for the crucial Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections started at 8 am itself and is currently underway, only four per cent voting was recorded in the first hour, news agency PTI quoted its sources in the Election Commission as saying.
Himachal Pradesh state Congress president Pratibha Singh, along with her son and party MLA Vikramaditya Singh, offered prayers at Shani Mandir in Shimla, ahead of casting their votes for state Assembly elections.
Voters across Himachal Pradesh queued up outside polling booths on Saturday to elect a new state government, a crucial test for the BJP hoping to beat precedent and return to power as well as for the Congress looking for electoral revival.
Voting began at 8 am on a slow note in the hill state but began to pick up as the morning progressed and the winter chill eased a bit. The polling will continue till 5 pm in all 68 assembly constituencies.
In an early morning message to voters, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged them to enthusiastically participate in the "festival of democracy" and register a voting record. In a tweet, Modi also greeted the young voters who will be exercising their franchise for the first time. Chief Minister Jairam Thakur echoed him and said every vote will help build a prosperous Himachal Pradesh. (PTI)
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and his family members cast their votes for the Assembly elections at polling station 44 in Mandi on Saturday. "Confident of a grand win. Feedback is great. Most importantly, people are casting their votes peacefully," he said. (ANI)
Voting for the crucial Himachal Pradesh elections began on Saturday at 8 am. As many as 412 candidates are contesting the polls from 68 constituencies. The Election Commission has set up 7,881 polling stations.
"Voting should be taken more as a responsibility; today's generation takes it very lightly. There should be more progress & more facilities should be given in rural areas," a voter told news agency ANI.
"I am a first-time voter. I feel very excited. I have voted for development," another voter named Ankita said. (ANI)
An intense campaign by the BJP and the Congress for the 68 seats in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly came to end on Thursday, two days ahead of polling on Saturday. AICC General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, BJP National President J.P. Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah and UP CM Yogi Adityanath held rallies in the state on the final day of campaigning.
“In the last five years, the double-engine government has worked rapidly for the development of the entire state, and especially for border areas of Himachal that were neglected for decades. I want to see this development campaign reach as high as the peaks of the Himalayas. When this central government came [to power] in 2014, and there was another party in government here, it did not allow the Centre’s plans to go ahead. In 2017, when the BJP government was formed in Himachal, development resumed,” said PM Modi in a final message as campaigning ended.
The PM also reminded people that the vote will be for the “future of Devbhoomi”. 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. Read more
Ahead of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections in 2017, the happiness and peace of Khushnagri, a picturesque village in the Churah area of Chamba district, were shattered.
The alleged rape of a student at the local government school took on political colour and shops and small eateries were vandalised and set ablaze, allegedly selectively, in the ensuing communal violence in Khushnagri and the nearby town of Tissa-Bhanjraru. The village had never witnessed such disharmony before.
In the run-up to the elections, the BJP’s then chief ministerial face Prem Kumar Dhumal campaigned in Tissa and invoked the then US President Donald Trump in his speech and claimed that he won because he said he would work for his country “just like Modi is working to take India forward”. Read more
As he leaves Basaral village for his next public meeting venue on Monday evening, amid the raucous beats of a dhol, Congress nominee from Nadaun, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, hands over a Rs 500 currency note to the drummer, who scales up the beats. “Isko band karne ke diye hain, bajane ke nahin (I have given you money to stop beating the drum, not to keep playing it,” he tells the drummer in a jovial tone that cracks up the audience around him.
The Himachal election campaign committee head of Congress and three-time MLA, Sukhu is seeking re-election for the fourth time. Arrayed against him is the BJP’s Vijay Agnihotri. Read more
Twice the CM of Himachal Pradesh, BJP’s Shanta Kumar, now 89, believes politics should be done for the country, not for the chair, which he calls dushtneeti. He speaks to The Indian Express on a wide range of issues.
We are meeting in the post-Covid world, with the virus having changed our lives beyond imagination.
I lost my wife to Covid. That too, within five days of her getting infected. It was a big personal loss. We had a companionship of 60 years. Afterwards, I felt empty, alone. But my kids and family helped me take control of my life… The virus caused immense damage across the world. Many children lost their parents. There were a lot of other problems. By God’s grace, things have now improved. Read more