New Delhi: Assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh will be held on 12 November and counting of votes will take place on 8 December, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar announced Friday.
Dates for Gujarat elections will be announced later, he added.
“There is still time for the Gujarat assembly’s tenure to end. There are multiple other factors. For Himachal Pradesh, weather too is an important factor, so dates have to be announced early. All factors will be assessed by the commission, following which Gujarat election dates too will be announced accordingly,” Kumar said at a press conference in Delhi.
Both states are currently ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Himachal: Prestige, revival and expansion
Himachal Pradesh is the home state of BJP national president JP Nadda and Union Minister Anurag Thakur. The party faces a prestige battle, more than anything else, in the hill state.
In every assembly election in Himachal since 1985, the state elected alternate governments to power — between the Congress and the BJP. The last time any party won two consecutive terms in the state was the Congress which did so in the 1982 and 1985 assembly polls, according to Election Commission records.
This year, Himachal Pradesh will contest a three-corner fight with the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) too throwing its hat in the ring for all 68 seats in the state.
In the 2017 assembly election, the BJP had won 44 seats in Himachal Pradesh and scored a vote share of 48.8 per cent. The Congress had won 21 seats and a vote share of 41.7 per cent.
While the BJP faces some degree of anti-incumbency factor in certain belts in the state, the Congress perceives it as an opportunity to revive itself, especially at a time when the party rules in only two states — Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
The AAP has adopted its governance model in Delhi that revolves around better schools, better healthcare, water and power subsidies, jobs and welfare measures among other things, as its primary poll plank. It is currently recognised as a state party in Delhi, Punjab and Goa. Getting recognised as a state party in another will qualify AAP as a national party.
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Gujarat: High stakes battle
Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, is considered a BJP stronghold. The party has ruled the state for nearly three decades now. For the BJP, it is more of a prestige battle to retain the throne.
Elections in this state are also very crucial for the Congress, which has been trying to revive itself with Rahul Gandhi launching the Bharat Jodo Yatra, and the AAP, which won the Punjab elections earlier this year and has been trying to expand its footprint across India ahead of the 2024 general elections.
Gujarat has 182 assembly seats, of which the BJP won 99 in the previous election held in 2017, down from 115 it had won in 2012. The Congress won 77 seats in 2017, up from 61 it had won in 2012. There was evidently a tight contest in terms of vote share with the BJP getting 49 per cent and Congress getting 41 per cent of total votes in the 2017 Gujarat polls.
The AAP had unsuccessfully contested 30 seats in Gujarat in 2017. Since then, the party has been working on building an organisational base in the state. This year, the AAP seems to have invested a large chunk of its resources in the Gujarat polls, with two of Kejriwal’s closest aides — Rajya Sabha MPs Sandeep Pathak and Raghav Chadha — acting as observers.
(Edited by Anumeha Saxena)
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