BJP, Congress in direct contest as vote count begins in Himachal

Shimla, June 4 (IANS) With the state-ruling Congress and the main opposition BJP locked in a direct contest in Himachal Pradesh for all four Lok Sabha seats and bypoll for six Assembly seats, the counting of votes began on Tuesday amid all arrangements.

The high-stake elections for the BJP, which aims to make a hat-trick of winning all four parliamentary seats and to “dethrone” the helm by winning bypoll for six assembly seats, were held on June 1.

A 71 per cent voter turnout was recorded in Himachal Pradesh, with Mandi registering the state’s highest at 73 per cent.

The counting of votes began at 8 a.m. at 74 centres, an election official told IANS.

The BJP may or may not pull off a hat-trick in the Lok Sabha elections with the Matrize Exit Poll predicting two to four seats for it in the hill state.

For the Lok Sabha, the prominent candidates in the fray include Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur, former Union Minister Anand Sharma, Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut and Public Works Department Minister Vikramaditya Singh.

The by-elections to Assembly seats are a contest of political survival for the six former Congress legislators, who are in the fray as the BJP candidates from their constituencies.

A total of 37 candidates are in the fray for the four Lok Sabha seats -- Mandi, Kangra, Hamirpur and Shimla (reserved), while 25 candidates are contesting the six by-elections in Dharamsala, Gagret, Kutlehar, Sujanpur, Barsar and Lahaul-Spiti constituencies.

The BJP, which won all Lok Sabha seats in 2014 and 2019, seems to be banking high on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “charisma” after his three election rallies to retain all Lok Sabha seats and win six Assembly seats, while the Congress is eyeing on its strong vote bank of 2.5-lakh government employees, whose demand of restoring the old pension scheme has been implemented by its government led by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.

The Congress on December 8, 2022, got an absolute majority in the Assembly elections, winning 40 seats -- six more than the halfway mark of 34 in the 68-member House, while the outgoing BJP was reduced to 25.

In the 2019 general polls, the BJP had won all four parliamentary seats. Later in the bypoll, the Congress won the Mandi seat.