2012 Himachal Pradesh Assembly Elections

The Election Commission on Wednesday Oct 03,2012 announced that Himachal Pradesh will vote on November 4,2012 and the counting for the 68 Seats of the Assembly elections will take place on December 20,2012.

Addressing a press conference in the national capital on Wednesday,Oct 03,2012 Chief Election Commissioner(CEC) VS Sampath said that with the announcement of the dates for the elections, model code of conduct has come into place in both Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh with immediate effect.

The term of the  68-member Himachal Assembly ends on January 10, 2013, said the CEC.


Important dates and facts about Himachal Pradesh poll:

 

• Total assembly constituencies: 68
• Reserved for SC: 17
• Reserved for ST: 3
• Total no. of electors: 45,16,054
• Total no. of polling stations: 7,252
• Issue of notification: October 10, 2012
• Last date for making nominations: October 17, 2012
• Scrutiny of nominations: October 18, 2012
• Last date for withdrawal of candidature: October 20, 2012
• Date of poll: November 4, 2012

Date before which election process shall be completed: December 24, 2012

Counting of votes: December 20, 2012 

 

Seats Won and the % of the Votes Polled Trends

 

995 Nominations Filed for Himachal Pradesh Assembly Polls

A record 955 nominations have been filed by 600-odd candidates for the Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls on Nov 4,2012.
As many as 254 nominations were filed for 15 seats in Kangra district, 142 for ten seats in Mandi, 78 for eight seats in Shimla, 95 for five seats in Hamirpur, 80 for five seats in Una, 68 for five seats in Sirmaur, 64 for five seats in Solan, 60 for five seats in Chamba, 58 for four seats in Bilaspur and 44 for four seats in Kullu.

Rebels cause worry to BJP, Cong

BJP and Congress are facing rebel candidates in more than one-and-a-half dozen constituencies after the last date of withdrawal of nominations

BJP is facing the problem of rebels in over 40 constituencies 

In all 460 candidates are left in the fray for the 68 Assembly seats going to polls on November 4

BJP expels Ten Rebels

Himachal Pradesh's ruling BJP on Tuesday Oct 23,2012 expelled ten of its leaders from primary membership of the party for not withdrawing in favour of the party's official candidates

 

Congress launches Election Campaign - Monday Oct 22,2012

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday kick-started the poll campaign in Himachal Pradesh with a scathing attack on the BJP-led government and accused it of not making any efforts to take the benefits of Central schemes to the poor and needy in the state.

Addressing a rally in Mandi, Sonia Gandhi said Central funds to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore allocated to the state had lapsed last year as the BJP government did not make adequate efforts to implement various Central schemes in the state.
 

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Virbhadra Singh during an election rally, in Mandi, Himachal Pardesh

Supporters wave as Congress president Sonia Gandhi leaves in a helicopter after addressing election rally 

    

BJP Candidates for 2012 Himachal Pradesh Assembly Elections

 INC Candidates for 2012 Himachal Pradesh Assembly Elections

1)Churah-SC - Surender Bhardwaj
2) Bharmour-ST - Thakur Singh Bharmouri
3) Chamba - Pawan Nayyar
4) Dalhousie - Asha Kumari
5) Bhattiyat - Kuldeep Singh Pathania
6) Nurpur - Ajay Mahajan
7)Indora-SC - Kamal Kishor
8)Fatehpur - Sujan Singh Pathania
9) Jawali - Neeraj Bharti
10)Dehra - Brig Rajinder Singh Rana
11) Jaswan-Pragpur - Nikhil Rajour
12)Jawalamukhi - Sanjay Rattan
13)Jaisinghpur-SC - Yadvinder Goma
14)Sullah - Jagniwal Pal
15)Nagrota - G S Bali
16)Kangra - Surender Kumar
17) Shahpur - Maj Vijay Singh Mankotia
18) Dharamshala - Sudir Sharma
19) Palampur-Brij Bihari Lal Butail
20) Baijnath-SC - Kishori Lal
21)Lahaul & Spiti-ST - Ravi Thakur
22) Manali - Bhuvneshwar Gaur
23) Kullu - Sunder Singh Thakur
24) Banjar - Karan Singh
25) Anni-SC - Ishwar Dass
26)Karsog-SC - Khub Ram
27) Sundernagar - Sohan Lal
28) Nachan-SC - Tek Chand Dogra
29) Seraj - Tara Thakur
30) Darang - Kaul Singh Thakur
31) Jogindernagar - Surender Pal Thakur
32) Dharampur - Chander Shekhar
33) Mandi - Anil Sharma
34) Balh-SC- Prakash Chaudhary
35)Sarkaghat- Rangila Ram Rao
36) Bhoranj-SC - Ramesh Dogra
37)Sujanpur - Anita Verma
38) Hamirpur - Narendra Thakur
39) Barsar - Inder Dutt Lakhanpal
40) Nadaun - Sushvinder Singh Sukhu
41) Chintpurni-SC - Kuldeep Kumar
42) Gagret - Rakesh Kalia
43) Haroli - Mukesh Agnihotri
44) Una - Satpal Raizada
45) Kutlehar - Ram Das Malagar
46)Jhanduta-SC - Biru Ram Kishore
47) Ghumarwin - Rajesh Dharmani
48) Bilaspur - Bumber Thakur
49) Sri Naina Deviji - Ram Lal Thakur
50)Arki - Sanjay Awasthi
51)Nalagarh - Lakhvinder Singh Rana
52) Doon - Ram Kumar
53)Solan-SC - Dhani Ram Shandil
54) Kasauli-SC - Vinod Sultanpuri
55) Pachhad-SC - Gangu Ram Musafir
56) Nahan - Kush Parmar
57)Sri Renukaji-SC - Vinay Kumar
58)Paonta Sahib - Sardar Onkar Singh
59) Shillai - Harshwardhan Chauhan
60) Chopal - Subhash Chand Manglate
61) Theog - Vidya Stokes
62) Kasumpti - Anirudh Singh
63) Shimla - Harish Janartha
64) Shimla Rural - Virbhadra Singh
65) Jubbal-Kotkhai - Rohit Thakur
66) Rampur-SC - Nand Lal
67) Rohru-SC - Mohan Lal Brakta and
68)Kinnaur-ST - Jagat Singh Negi.
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Who Will Win?  Virbhadra Singh(INC) or P K Dhumal(BJP)

 

Pre-Poll Survey

A pre-poll survey conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) for CNN-IBN shows that it will be a very close contest between the BJP and Congress, with 41 %of votes going to the BJP and 40 % to the Congress. 

Although the BJP is a nose ahead of the Congress in terms of vote-share, its share has dropped from 2007, when the party won 41 seats in the 68-member state Assembly. The Congress ended with only 19 seats, although it had been the dominant party in the previous 20 years.

The pre-poll survey by CSDS, which interviewed 2014 voters from the latest electoral rolls between 14 October and 21 October in 119 locations in 30 Assembly constituencies spread across the state, does not offer seat projections. While the BJP has seen a 3% decrease in its vote share, which stood at 44 % in 2007, the Congress has managed to gain only one per cent over its 39%earlier.

 

Arrangements in place for Himachal polls

60 companies of central paramilitary forces, including ITBP and CRPF, will be deployed in Himachal Pradesh to ensure free and fair elections at 7,253 polling booths on November 4,2012

25 companies of ITBP, 15 companies of SSB, 10 of CRPF and 10 companies of BSF would be deployed at the polling booths

There are 46,08,359 electors including 45,33,713 general electors and 74,646 service electors.All 68 constituencies, including three tribal, would go to polls in a single phase and the ballot boxes would be kept under security for about seven weeks till the day of counting which would take place on Dec 20,2012.

The sale of liquor has been banned for 48 hours and dry days have been declared from 5.00 AM on November 2 to 5.00 PM on Nov 4,2012. 

 

Himachal Pradesh AssemblyElection - Nov 04,2012

Led by Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, the incumbent BJP is hoping to script history in the state by going the Punjab way, where the Akali-BJP combine returned to power against historical projections.Much like Punjab, Himachal Pradesh has never repeated a government since 1977.

The BJP and Congress are contesting all 68 seats while BSP has fielded 66 candidates followed by Himachal Lokhit Party (36), TMC (25), SP (16), CPI-M (15), NCP and Swabhiman Party (12 each), CPI (7), Shiv Sena (4) and 105 Independents.

In all, 459 candidates are in the fray for tomorrow's elections, 27 of them women. As many as 7253 polling stations have been set up, including the highest polling station in Hikkim in Lahaul and Spiti at a height of over 15,000 feet .

World's Highest Polling Centre -  Hikkim

Hikkim, the "world's highest polling centre" is preparing for polls as the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh votes in the regional elections on Sunday Nov 04,2012.

Located at 15,000ft (4,572m) above sea level in the Himalayas, it has been described as the highest in the world by the election commission.

"The Hikkim polling station caters to the three villages of Komik, Langche and Hikkim and has 326 voters," said SS Guleria, senior official in Lahaul and Spiti district, which borders Tibet.

Voters from three villages, most of them Buddhists, will cast their ballots at the Hikkim polling centre.

   

HP Assembly Polls - Polling Day - Sunday Nov 4,2012

 

Himachal Pradesh on Sunday registered a record high polling of around 75 % in elections for 68 assembly constituencies, Election Commission officials said. The state's Chief Electoral Officer, Narinder Chauhan, said in Shimla, "The voter turnout was approximately 75 %."  

The maximum turnout was in Sirmaur district (81.48 per cent), followed by Solan district (80.34 per cent), Kullu district (78.74 per cent), Mandi (76.95 per cent) and Chamba (75.25 per cent). The state's largest district Kangra, with the maximum number of 15 seats, saw 72.25 per cent polling. 

India's highest polling booth in Lahaul-Spiti district recorded 80 per cent turnout. At the Hikkim polling station, located at an altitude of 14,567 feet, 267 voters out of the 333 on the rolls cast votes

Congress leader and five-time chief minister Virbhadra Singh cast his vote at his native place in Rampur town, around 120 km from Shimla

 

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister P. K. Dhumal flashes victory sign after casting his vote for Assembly elections at a polling station in Samirpur

 A 99-yr old voter arrives to cast his vote for the HP Assembly Polls at a polling station in Kullu

 

 

 

A 95-yr-old woman shows her voter identity card outside a polling station during HP AssemblyPolls in Kullu.

 

In 2007 assembly polls, the poll percentage was 71.61 per cent, in 2003 it was 74.51 per cent, in 1998 it was 71.23 per cent, in 1993 it was 71.50 per cent and in 1990 it was 67.76 per cent. 

 

 2012 Himachal Pradesh Assembly Polls Results -  Dec 20,2012

As many as 33.49 lakh voters had exercised their franchise in the one-day polling on Nov 4,2012 and sealed the fate of 459 candidates including Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and HPCC chief Virbhadra Singh. The state recorded highest polling of 74.70 % which was slightly higher than the 74.51 % polling in 2003.

The INC returned to power in Himachal Pradesh after five years, defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Party          No of Seats Won    No of Votes Secured    Vote %
BJP                         26                    2633980                        39
INC                        36                    2894484                        43
Others                       6                    1265916                        19
Total                       68


The INC led by former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh emerge victorious.

Virbhadra Singh wins Shimla(Rural) constituency defeating his BJP rival Ishwar Rohal by 19,033 votes. 
BJP leader and Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal won from the Hamirpur seat defeating his nearest INC's Narinder Thakur by a margin of over 9,500 votes

BJP concedes defeat in Himachal Pradesh polls 

 

The BJP on Thursday Dec 20,2012 conceded defeat in Himachal Pradesh with senior leader Shanta Kumar saying that the party accepted the poll verdict. "We accept the verdict. All people in the BJP had fought elections together. The people did not vote for us. We accept it," Shanta Kumar, a former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister told reporters.

Virbhadra Singh takes oath as Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister

 

INC'sVirbhadra Singh(78) was sworn in as Himachal Pradesh's Chief Minister for a record sixth term andas the hill state's 13th chief minister in the presence of thousands of his supporters in Shimla on Tuesday Dec 25,2012. 

                                                                              

Governor Urmila Singh administered the oath of office at the historic Ridge in Shimla.

Note

Belonging to the erstwhile princely state of Rampur Bushahr, Virbhadra Singh entered politics at the age of 28.