Page 3 - Himachal Pradesh Elections

17.98% voting recorded in Himachal polls till 11 am: Election Commission

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 5 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. Top leaders, including Chief Minister Thakur, voted in Mandi along with his wife and daughters after offeri

HP polls: Confident of winning 40-45 seats, says Cong chief Pratibha Singh

After casting her vote at Rampur in Shimla in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls, Congress MP and state chief Pratibha Singh on Saturday appealed to vote for development and work while exuding confidence of winning 40-45 seats in 68 members Assembly."We'd like to tell people of Himachal Pradesh to vote for development & work. Congress always worked for development & in the time to come only Congress can take that work forward in the state. We're confident of winning 40-45 seats," Pratibha Singh said.Pratibha Singh and party MLA Vikramaditya on Saturday cast their vote at Rampur in Shimla in the assembly polls.Vikramaditya who is a son of former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, and also a sitting MLA from Shimla Rural was entrusted by the Congress once again and given a ticket against BJP's Ravi Mehta, AAP's Prem Thakur."We would like to request the people to take Himachal forward and cast their votes in public interest, in the interest of Himachal Pradesh - to make it the .

Himachal Pradesh polls: PM Modi urges voters to turn up in large numbers

'I request all the voters of Devbhoomi to participate with full enthusiasm in this festival of democracy and create a new record of voting'

Nearly 30,000 security personnel deployed to ensure free, fair polls in HP

Polling for 68 Assembly segments would be held in a single phase today

BJP, Congress fight it out as Himachal Pradesh all set to vote on Saturday

Rebels could spoil the party for several official candidates

Despite AAP's presence, Himachal's political battle between BJP, Congress

AAP, which is in the fray for the first time in the Assembly polls, has been missing from the state with its leaders focusing on strengthening its vote bank in another poll-bound Gujarat.

HP polls: SDMA deploys teams of NDRF in Lahaul for response in calamities

A state disaster management plan has been prepared for the Himachal Pradesh assembly election, 2022 along with District Disaster Management Plans, as per the instruction of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), said a statement on Thursday.The State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) has deployed the teams of the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Relief Force (SDRF) comprising 50 personnel in tribal areas of Lahaul & Spiti and Chamba districts for quick response in any untoward incidents or natural calamities, added a statement.Ten personnel of NDRF and SDRF have been deployed at district headquarters (HQ) Chamba and Pangi, besides ten of NDRF at District HQ Lahaul-Spiti, Kaza and Udaipur.The State Government has declared a public holiday on the poll day i.e. November 12, 2022, to the employees working in government offices, boards, Corporations, educational institutions and industrial establishments situated in Himachal Pradesh on account of assembly ...

Double-engine govt necessary for development of Himachal: Anurag Thakur

Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur on Thursday said a "double-engine" government is necessary in Himachal Pradesh to ensure faster development of the hill state. Addressing rallies on the last day of campaigning for the November 12 Assembly polls, Thakur said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments at the Centre and in Himachal Pradesh have ensured all-round development of the state. "Double engine" is a term often used by BJP leaders to refer to the party ruling at the Centre and in a state. "Projects delayed for years were not only started but also completed," Thakur said, addressing rallies in Shimla Rural, Kasauli, Sujanpur and Hamirpur. Polling for the 68-member Himachal Pradesh Assembly is scheduled to be held on Saturday. The BJP is locked in a tough fight with the Congress to retain power in the state. Thakur hit out at the Congress and accused the opposition party of putting up hurdles in the way of development projects in the state. "In 2003,

Don't waste your vote on Congress: Adityanath appeals to Himachal people

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Thursday appealed to Himachal Pradesh people not to "waste" their vote on the Congress, alleging had they been in power at Centre, India's borders would not have been secure and neither Article 370 scrapped nor Ram temple built in Ayodhya. The country would have missed the efficient management of the Covid crisis by the Narendra Modi government and crores of Indians would not have received free vaccines, he claimed at poll rallies in Kullu, Mandi and Una districts on the last day of campaigning. The Congress is seeking to wrest power from the BJP in Himachal Pradesh which goes to the polls on November 12. "Would the 'Har Ghar Nal' scheme be implemented in Himachal Pradesh? Would Congress be able to give free vaccines and free rations during Covid?... When the Congress could not do all this and neither take care of your health nor give good institutes of learning or set up AIIMS or IIT here... why waste votes on Congress," he ...

Congress to win unilaterally in Himachal Pradesh elections: Ashok Gehlot

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Thursday exuded confidence that the Congress would win unilaterally in the upcoming Himachal Pradesh assembly elections. He also said there is a good atmosphere in favour of the Congress in Gujarat where a fierce anti-incumbency wave is being seen against the current BJP government. "The atmosphere is good. In Himachal, Congress is winning the election unilaterally," he told reporters after returning from the tour of both states. "There is a good atmosphere in Gujarat. There is also a very fierce wave against the BJP government. Our campaign is going well. Five (Parivartan Sankalp) yatras were taken out, the reaction of the people seen in these yatras is indicative of this," the senior Congress leader said. "Unemployment situation is very terrible in Gujarat. Recently, 70 people have died due to illicit liquor. These (BJP) people are not conducting any investigation into the Morbi accident. The Chief Minister is stubborn and stubborn is their leader,"

Multiple CM faces our strength, not weakness: Congress President Kharge

The presence of several chief ministerial faces in Himachal Pradesh is not the Congress' weakness but its strength, party president Mallikarjun Kharge said on Thursday as the campaign for assembly elections in the hill state drew to a close. The ruling BJP, in contrast, is going into elections banking just on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's face because it is "aware of the failures of the chief minister (Jairam Thakur) and the state government", Kharge, who is overseeing his first elections after assuming charge as Congress president last month, said. "The PM is saying don't look at the candidate, vote for me. This attitude belittles the people of Himachal Pradesh. They know the prime minister will not be there in the state after the voting ends," the Congress veteran told PTI in an interview, referring to Modi's campaign speeches. Confident that the Congress will wrest power from the BJP because the people were determined to bring in change, Kharge said his party is going into the .

Himachal polls: BJP, Congress launch aggressive social media campaigns

The BJP and the Congress have launched an aggressive social media campaign to target each other ahead of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly election as the rival parties leave no stone unturned in a bid to reap maximum gains. BJP leader Sanjay Tandon told PTI that the party started the campaign from Tuesday evening with a tagline of 'naya rivaj banayenge, phir bhajpa layenge' (will make a new tradition, will bring BJP again). The tagline ostensibly refers to the trend of the state electing governments of alternate parties every assembly election. The BJP has prepared 15-second short video messages, some of which target the grand old party on many issues. On the other hand, the Congress targeted the BJP for allegedly making big promises at the time of previous assembly polls and not fulfilling it. "They snatched Himachal's special status and we returned it respectfully," one of the BJP's messages says in Hindi. It refers to the BJP leaders saying during the poll campaigning that the then

Himachal polls: Cong on 68 rally blitzkrieg, Priyanka goes door to door

The oldest party in the country will hold rallies in all 68 assembly constituencies simultaneously in the state on the last day of the campaign

Former Congress leader from Himachal joins BJP ahead of assembly election

Harpreet Singh Ratan joined BJP at the residence of the party's national president JP Nadda on Thursday

BJP will return in Himachal with two-thirds majority: Sanjay Tandon

"There is a BJP wave in the state and people want to vote the double-engine government back. BJP has launched a campaign in the state with utmost sincerity with our top leaders leading from the front"

Assembly elections: BJP cannot befool people of Himachal, says Kharge

Addressing his first public meeting in the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday trained his gun on the BJP and said it may have been able to befool people across the country with its "jumlas" but cannot do so in the hill state. "People here are educated, understand everything and take a considered decision (in voting).... The BJP may have been able to befool people all over the country with its jumlas (rhetoric) of Rs 15 lakh in bank accounts and jobs, but it cannot do so here," Kharge said. Kharge, who was elected Congress president recently, arrived in Himachal Pradesh Tuesday evening and addressed his first public meeting in Banuti in support of party candidate from the Shimla Rural assembly constituency Vikramaditya Singh. The Congress is seeking to wrest power from the BJP in the hill state, where the Congress and the BJP have governed alternately for the past many decades. Polling in Himachal Pradesh will be held on November

"Congress is guarantee of instability" PM Modi attacks party in Kangra

Taking a swipe at Congress, PM said, "Only two states are left where Congress is ruling. And that's why development news never comes from those states."

Dubious video, poster war, infighting: Fatehpur, a hotspot in HP polls

A poster war, a controversial video clip and the BJP 'infighting' have made Fatehpur constituency on the northwest border of Kangra district a hot seat in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections. Fatehpur, known for its Pong Dam wetlands where migratory birds from Siberia and northern China arrive, has become the political hotspot ever since the BJP roped in its three-time Nurpur MLA Rakesh Pathania. The saffron party has nominated Pathania, the state youth services and sports minister, to contest from the seat, much to the dismay of former Rajya Sabha MP Kripal Parmar. Pathania holds sway in at least 15 panchayat areas which were part of his Nurpur constituency before the delimitation ahead of 2012 polls. Parmar, who was a frontrunner for the party ticket, has been expelled from the party along with four other rebels for six years for contesting as an independent candidate. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been losing the seat since 2003, except for 2007 when Rajan Sushant wo

'BJP's double-engine govt will derail soon', says Sachin Pilot in Himachal

Pilot, who was campaigning for Congress in the Himachal Assembly polls, said that the voters are "inclined towards the party"

UP CM targets Congress in Himachal, says India's stature rising under PM

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adiyanath on Monday attacked the Congress in poll-bound Himachal Pradesh and alleged that it "compromises border security and creates hurdles in development"