Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly election, 2017

Himachal Pradesh legislative assembly election, 2017
All 68 seats in the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly ; 35 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	74%
Chief Minister before election; Virbhadra Singh ; INC	Elected Chief Minister ; Jai Ram Thakur ; BJP

Last updated April 07, 2019

The Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly election, 2017 was held on 9 November 2017 to elect all 68 members of the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly.

The Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly or the Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha is the unicameral legislature of the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. The present strength of the Vidhan Sabha is 68. Himachal Pradesh is the first state in India to launch paperless legislative assembly known as eVidhan.

The Constitution of India is the supreme law of India. The document lays down the framework demarcating fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental rights, directive principles, and the duties of citizens. It is the longest written constitution of any country on earth. B. R. Ambedkar, chairman of the drafting committee, is widely considered to be its chief architect.

The Indian National Congress(pronunciation ) is a broadly based political party in India. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Empire in Asia and Africa. From the late 19th century, and especially after 1920, under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, Congress became the principal leader of the Indian independence movement. Congress led India to independence from Great Britain, and powerfully influenced other anti-colonial nationalist movements in the British Empire.

Himachal Pradesh, as a state of India follows Parliamentary system of government similar to other states. The Government is responsible to the Assembly and stays in power only if it has the support of majority members. Elections take place on a first past the post basis, the candidate with the most number of votes wins the seat regardless of absolute majority. Every citizen of the state, who is 18 and above is eligible to vote. The Governor then invites the leader of the largest party or coalition to form the government. As is common in most other first past the post electoral systems, the state's politics are dominated by two parties - the ruling Indian National Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party.

A parliamentary system is a system of democratic governance of a state where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the confidence of the legislature, typically a parliament, and is also held accountable to that parliament. In a parliamentary system, the head of state is usually a person distinct from the head of government. This is in contrast to a presidential system, where the head of state often is also the head of government and, most importantly, the executive does not derive its democratic legitimacy from the legislature.

The Bharatiya Janata Party is one of the two major political parties in India, along with the Indian National Congress. As of 2018, it is the country's largest political party in terms of representation in the national parliament and state assemblies, and it is the world's largest party in terms of primary membership. BJP is a right-wing party, and its policy has historically reflected Hindu nationalist positions. It has close ideological and organisational links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

State elections in India are often fought on central issues, and the results are regarded as a referendum on the central government's policies. This is especially true in the case of states where the two national parties - Congress and BJP are in direct contest with each other. The state units of the parties are not completely independent and the central authority of the parties have a considerable influence over candidate selection and campaigning. However, state issues do tend to dominate the discourse. The Congress party has projected its current Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh as its Chief Ministerial candidate for the elections. BJP announced Prem Kumar Dhumal as their Chief Ministerial candidate. Dhumal lost his seat from Sujanpur constituency.

The Government of India, often abbreviated as GoI, is the union government created by the constitution of India as the legislative, executive and judicial authority of the union of 29 states and seven union territories of a constitutionally democratic republic. It is located in New Delhi, the capital of India.

Virbhadra Singh, is an Indian politician. The longest-serving and 4th Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, he served as the Chief Minister from 2012 to 2017 before being replaced by BJP's Jai Ram Thakur in December 2017. He previously served as Chief Minister from 1983 to 1990, from 1993 to 1998 and from 2003 to 2007. He was an elected member of the Lok Sabha in 1962, 1967, 1972, 1980 and in 2009. He is a member of the Indian National Congress. His wife, Pratibha Singh, was a Lok Sabha member from Mandi.

Preparations for elections

VVPAT-fitted electronic voting machines were used in all of the 7,521 polling stations, the first time that the entire state will see the implementation of VVPAT to ensure greater transparency to the voter.^[3] Over 5 million voters are registered in the state.^[4] VVPAT slips were counted in 2 polling stations each across all 68 Himachal Pradesh constituencies.^[5]

Voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) or verifiable paper record (VPR) is a method of providing feedback to voters using a ballotless voting system. A VVPAT is intended as an independent verification system for voting machines designed to allow voters to verify that their vote was cast correctly, to detect possible election fraud or malfunction, and to provide a means to audit the stored electronic results. It contains the name of the candidate and symbol of the party/individual candidate.The VVPAT must be destroyed by the voter before leaving the room.

India's first voter, Shyam Saran Negi, has voted for the 29th time at Kalpa polling station in Kinnaur.^[6] The state also has India's highest polling station at Hikkim, and the polling station with the least number of voters (six) at Ka in Kinnaur.^[7]

Group of voters	Voters population
Male	2,531,321
Female	2,457,032
Third gender	169
Total voters	5,025,541

Tibetan voters

Indian electoral rules allow any citizen of India above 18 years of age to vote in any states and union territories of India, provided he/she is a resident of that state. India has a large Tibetan diaspora that fled from Tibet along with the Dalai Lama. Dharamshala, a city in Himachal Pradesh, is the capital of the Central Tibetan Administration. The Government has allowed Tibetans born in India between 1950 and 1987 to vote in the elections. This however, does not affect their relationship with the CTA.^[8]^[9]

Candidate list

BJP declared list of 68 candidates on 18 October 2017 which includes 14 first timers with 21 new faces.^[10]

Schedule

Event	Date	Day
Date for nominations	16 Oct 2017	Monday
Last date for filing nominations	23 Oct 2017	Monday
Date for scrutiny of nominations	24 Oct 2017	Tuesday
Last date for withdrawal of candidatures	26 Oct 2017	Thursday
Date of poll	9 Nov 2017	Thursday
Date of counting	18 Dec 2017	Monday
Date before which the election shall be completed	20 Dec 2017	Wednesday

Opinion polls

Polling firm/Commissioner	Date published	BJP	INC	Others
Polling firm/Commissioner	Date published
India-Today (Axis) Opinion Poll^[11]	24 October 2017	49% 43-47	38% 21-25	13% 0-2
ABP News CSDS^[12]	30 October 2017	47% 39-45	41% 22-28	12% 0-3
C-Voter^[13]	7 November 2017	50% 52	37% 15	11% 1

Results

The results were declared on 18 December 2017.^[14]

← Summary of the 9 November 2017 Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly election results^[15]
Parties and coalitions		Popular vote			Seats

Parties and coalitions		Votes	%	±pp	Won	+/−
	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)	1,846,432	48.8	10.3	44	18
	Indian National Congress (INC)	1,577,450	41.7	1.1	21	15
	Independents	239,989	6.3	6.1	2	3
	Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M))	55,558	1.5	0.1	1	1
	Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)	18,540	0.5	0.7	0
	Himachal Lokhit Party (HLP)	N/A		2.4	0	1
	None of the Above (NOTA)	34,232	0.9	0.9	N/A

Total			100.00		68	±0

Results by Constituency

No.	Constituency	Winner Candidate
1	Anni	Kishori Lal	BJP
2	Arki	Virbhadra Singh	INC
3	Baijnath	Mulkh Raj Premi	BJP
4	Balh	Colonel Inder Singh	BJP
5	Banjar	Surender Shourie	BJP
6	Barsar	Inder Dutt Lakhanpal	INC
7	Bharmour	Jia Lal	BJP
8	Bhattiyat	Bikram Singh Jaryal	BJP
9	Bhoranj	Kamlesh Kumari	BJP
10	Bilaspur	Subhash Thakur	BJP
11	Chamba	Pawan Nayyar	BJP
12	Chintpurni	Balvir Singh	BJP
13	Chopal	Balbir Singh Verma	BJP
14	Churah	Hans Raj	BJP
15	Dalhousie	Asha Kumari	INC
16	Darang	Jawahar Thakur	BJP
17	Dehra	Hoshyar Singh	Independent
18	Dharampur	Mahender Singh	BJP
19	Dharamshala	Kishan Kapoor	BJP
20	Doon	Paramjeet Singh Pammi	BJP
21	Fatehpur	Sujan Singh Pathania	INC
22	Gagret	Rajesh Thakur	BJP
23	Ghumarwin	Rajinder Garg	BJP
24	Hamirpur	Narinder Thakur	BJP
25	Haroli	Mukesh Agnihotri	INC
26	Indora	Reeta Devi	BJP
27	Jaisinghpur	Ravinder Kumar	BJP
28	Jaswan-Pragpur	Bikram Singh	BJP
29	Jawalamukhi	Ramesh Chand Dhawala	BJP
30	Jawali	Arjun Singh	BJP
31	Jhanduta	Jeet Ram Katwal	BJP
32	Jogindernagar	Prakash Rana	Independent
33	Jubbal-Kotkhai	Narinder Bragta	BJP
34	Kangra	Pawan Kumar Kajal	INC
35	Karsog	Hira Lal	BJP
36	Kasauli	Rajiv Saizal	BJP
37	Kasumpti	Anirudh Singh	INC
38	Kinnaur	Jagat Singh Negi	INC
39	Kullu	Sunder Singh Thakur	INC
40	Kutlehar	Virender Kanwar	BJP
41	Lahaul & Spiti	Ram Lal Markanda	BJP
42	Manali	Govind Singh Thakur	BJP
43	Mandi	Anil Sharma	BJP
44	Nachan	Vinod Kumar	BJP
45	Nadaun	Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu	INC
46	Nagrota	Arun Kumar	BJP
47	Nahan	Dr.Rajeev Bindal	BJP
48	Nalagarh	Lakhvinder Singh Rana	INC
49	Nurpur	Rakesh Pathania	BJP
50	Pachhad	Suresh Kumar Kashyap	BJP
51	Palampur	Ashish Butail	INC
52	Paonta Sahib	Sukh Ram Chaudhary	BJP
53	Rampur	Nand Lal	INC
54	Rohru	Mohan Lal Brakta	INC
55	Sarkaghat	Colonel Inder Singh	BJP
56	Seraj	Jai Ram Thakur	BJP
57	Shahpur	Sarveen Choudhary	BJP
58	Shillai	Baldev Singh	INC
59	Shimla	Suresh Bhardwaj	BJP
60	Shimla Rural	Vikramaditya Singh	INC
61	Solan	Colonel(Retd.) Dhani Ram Shandil	INC
62	Sri Naina Deviji	Ram Lal Thakur	INC
63	Sri Renukaji	Vinay Kumar	INC
64	Sujanpur	Rajinder Rana	INC
65	Sullah	Vipin Singh Parmar	BJP
66	Sundernagar	Rakesh Kumar Jamwal	BJP
67	Theog	Rakesh Singha	CPI(M)
68	Una	Satpal Raizada	INC

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References

↑ "Virbhadra Singh files nomination from Arki constituency". The Economic Times . Press Trust of India. 20 October 2017. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
↑ "Terms of the Houses". eci.nic.in. Election Commission of India/National Informatics Centre . Retrieved 23 May 2016.
↑ "The many firsts in Himachal Pradesh elections: VVPAT, disabled people and women to man 141 booths".
↑ https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/shimla/one-day-poll-in-hp-result-on-december-18/articleshow/61063375.cms
↑ "In a first, EC to hold mandatory VVPAT count at one polling station of each constituency".
↑ "At 100, India's first voter Shyam Negi keeps date with V-day". Hindustan Times . 2017-11-09. Retrieved 2017-11-09.
↑ "Himachal votes: Hikkim, country's highest polling station, records 89% turnout". Hindustan Times . 2017-11-09. Retrieved 2017-11-09.
↑ "Tibetans living in exile to vote first time in Himachal assembly elections - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 2017-10-14.
↑ Himachal Pradesh Election Results
↑ Verma, Gyan (19 October 2017). "BJP releases candidate list for Himachal elections". Mint . Retrieved 28 October 2017.
↑ "Himachal Pradesh Opinion Poll: BJP all set for a big win, development the key issue". IndiaToday. 24 Oct 2017. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
↑ "BJP set to sweep Himachal Pradesh, may get 39-45 seats: ABP News opinion poll". ABP Live. 30 October 2017. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
↑ "C-Voter survey predicts thumping victory for BJP". Firstpost. 7 November 2017. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
↑ https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/tale-of-two-states-gujarat-trumps-over-himachal-pradesh-on-nota-votes/articleshow/62122042.cms
↑ http://www.thehindu.com/elections/himachal-pradesh-2017/live-updates-himachal-pradesh-legislative-assembly-election-results/article21830225.ece

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[1] "Virbhadra Singh files nomination from Arki constituency". The Economic Times . Press Trust of India. 20 October 2017. Retrieved 29 October 2017.

[eci-2] "Terms of the Houses". eci.nic.in. Election Commission of India/National Informatics Centre . Retrieved 23 May 2016.

[3] "The many firsts in Himachal Pradesh elections: VVPAT, disabled people and women to man 141 booths".

[4] ttps://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/shimla/one-day-poll-in-hp-result-on-december-18/articleshow/61063375.cms

[5] "In a first, EC to hold mandatory VVPAT count at one polling station of each constituency".

[6] "At 100, India's first voter Shyam Negi keeps date with V-day". Hindustan Times . 2017-11-09. Retrieved 2017-11-09.

[7] "Himachal votes: Hikkim, country's highest polling station, records 89% turnout". Hindustan Times . 2017-11-09. Retrieved 2017-11-09.

[8] "Tibetans living in exile to vote first time in Himachal assembly elections - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 2017-10-14.

[9] Himachal Pradesh Election Results

[10] Verma, Gyan (19 October 2017). "BJP releases candidate list for Himachal elections". Mint . Retrieved 28 October 2017.

[11] "Himachal Pradesh Opinion Poll: BJP all set for a big win, development the key issue". IndiaToday. 24 Oct 2017. Retrieved 24 October 2017.

[:0-12] "BJP set to sweep Himachal Pradesh, may get 39-45 seats: ABP News opinion poll". ABP Live. 30 October 2017. Retrieved 30 October 2017.

[:1-13] "C-Voter survey predicts thumping victory for BJP". Firstpost. 7 November 2017. Retrieved 7 November 2017.

[14] ttps://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/tale-of-two-states-gujarat-trumps-over-himachal-pradesh-on-nota-votes/articleshow/62122042.cms

[15] ttp://www.thehindu.com/elections/himachal-pradesh-2017/live-updates-himachal-pradesh-legislative-assembly-election-results/article21830225.ece

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