75% Voting In Himachal. BJP Aims To Make History, Congress Eyes Comeback

At the nub of the fight is whether the BJP succumbs to the state's "rivaaj", or tradition, of changing the government every election. Rebels are a major headache for the ruling party. In 2017, it got 44 of the 68 seats; Congress got 21. This time, pitching PM Narendra Modi's face along with Jairam Thakur's work, it said “continuity” is key to development. Its main argument: “Double engine” — same party in power in state and at Centre — will ensure unhindered work. It cited another Himalayan state, Uttarakhand, as an example of defeating such a trend.

The Congress's argument is that the election is about local issues. It wishes the voters go by the four-decade tradition of voting out the incumbent. Beset with a leadership crisis since the death of veteran Virbhadra Singh, the party says it'll sail back to power as its seat-wise ticket allocation has been “much better than before”. Virbhadhra Singh's wife Pratibha Singh is the state unit chief; son Vikramaditya Singh is among candidates.

The chief worry for the BJP is that it has 21 rebels. It's a prestige issue for national chief JP Nadda, a Himachal veteran who was once a minister under Prem Kumar Dhumal. Mr Dhumal is not contesting — he insists he retired on his own — though the “denial of ticket” made headlines, all the more because many leaders cried on stage.

The BJP campaign had Union ministers and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, seen as an aggressive face of its Hindutva ideology, holding multiples rallies. For the Congress, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra held rallies while her brother Rahul Gandhi stuck to his ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra' in South India. Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress's first non-Gandhi chief in 24 years, campaigned too.

The Congress ran a low-key campaign even in PM Modi's stronghold Gujarat, which votes next month, but it will need to win Himachal to reverse its downslide and fire up its cadres. The party has lost in nine states in about two years. There are nine more state polls next year, including in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the only two where Congress has chief ministers.

Early this year, the Congress lost power in Himachal's neigbouring state Punjab to the Aam Aadmi Party. The AAP is contesting Himachal but its concentration, evidently, remained on Gujarat. 

Congress's promise of restoring the pre-2004 Old Pension Scheme became a major issue as the state has over 2 lakh government employees. The BJP has promised implementation of Uniform Civil Code and 8 lakh jobs in the state. On pension, it says that “if anyone would restore the old scheme, it will be the BJP”.

Significant candidates include Chief Minister Jairam Thakur from Seraj, minister Suresh Bhardwaj from Kasumpti, Congress Legislature Party leader Mukesh Agnihotri from Haroli, Vikramaditya Singh from Shimla Rural, and Congress campaign committee chief Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu.

Himachal has 55 lakh registered. For polling that began at 8 am, the Election Commission set up 7,884 stations, including three in far-flung areas. The highest booth was in Tashigang in Kaza in Lahaul-Spiti district, at 15,256 feet, for 52 voters.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, there was over 72 per cent voter turnout and the BJP won all four seats. Voting went up to 74 per cent in the 2017 assembly elections, the highest in 15 years, and the BJP unseated the Congress.