Himachal election on November 12, Result on December 8
14 Oct 2022 16:40:39
New Delhi, Oct 14: Himachal Pradesh will vote for a new government on November 12 and votes will be counted on December 8, the Election Commission said on Friday, in an announcement that surprisingly did not include dates for Gujarat, which was also expected to hold polls by the end of the year.
To a raft of questions about the unexpected move, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said they considered various factors, including convention, the gap between the last dates of the two states' assembly terms, and weather, to arrive at a decision.
The term of the Himachal Pradesh assembly, which has 68 seats with 35 as the majority mark, ends on January 8. The term of the Gujarat assembly ends 26 days later, on February 18. In the last Himachal Pradesh assembly elections, held in 2017, the BJP won 44 seats and Congress 21. Independents scored two and the CPI(M) won one seat. In percentage terms, the BJP won 48.79 percent of the total valid votes, followed by Congress (41.68 percent) and Independents (6.34 percent). This time, Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) hopes to make the usually two-sided contest into a triangular fight by making forays into the Himalayan state that borders Punjab, which it won earlier this year.
More than 55 lakh people are eligible to vote in the polls, including 1.86 lakh first-time voters, 1.22 lakh aged above 80, and around 1,100 above 100 years of age.