2017 Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly election

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

2017 Himachal Pradesh legislative assembly election

9 November 2017
All 68 seats in the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly 35 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	75.57%
Majority party Minority party   Leader Prem Kumar Dhumal Virbhadra Singh Party BJP INC Leader since 2017 1983 Leader's seat Sujanpur (lost) Arki[1] Last election 26 36 Seats won 44 21 Seat change 18 15 Popular vote 1,846,432 1,577,450 Percentage 48.8% 41.7% Swing 10.33% 1.11%
Chief Minister before election Virbhadra Singh INC Elected Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur BJP

The term of previous Legislative Assembly ended on 7 January 2017. Since 2012, the Indian National Congress Party was in power in outgoing assembly with 36 seats. The lone opposition party was Bharatiya Janata Party.

The Constitution of India states that the term of Legislative Assemblies is five years, at maximum. The term of current Legislative Assembly ends on 7 January 2018.[2] The previous election, held in 2012 resulted in Congress gaining majority of seats and Virbhadra Singh becoming Chief Minister.

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 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.

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. Eventually the BJP made Jai Ram Thakur the Chief Minister who won from the Seraj constituency. In 17th Assembly segment, Tashigang village become the highest polling station at an altitude of 15256 feet. The polling station falls in Buddhist dominated Lahul-Spiti that form the Mandi Lok Sabha seat, the second largest constituency in India. Situated at about 29 Kilometres from India-China border, the polling station covers two vallages - Tashigang and Gets. As per the revised electoral roll, the two villages have 48 Voters of which 30 are men and 18 women.

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]

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 fewest 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 October 2017	Monday
Last date for filing nominations	23 October 2017	Monday
Date for scrutiny of nominations	24 October 2017	Tuesday
Last date for withdrawal of candidatures	26 October 2017	Thursday
Date of poll	9 Nov 2017	Thursday
Date of counting	18 December 2017	Monday
Date before which the election shall be completed	20 December 2017	Wednesday

Opinion polls

Polling firm/Commissioner	Date published
		BJP	INC	Others
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
		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		37,84,658	100.00		68	±0
Valid votes		37,84,658	99.64
Invalid votes		13,158	0.36
Votes cast / turnout		37,98,176	75.57
Abstentions		12,27,764	24.43
Registered voters		50,25,940

Results by Constituency

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

References

1. "Virbhadra Singh files nomination from Arki constituency". The Economic Times. Press Trust of India. 20 October 2017. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
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. https://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. 9 November 2017. Retrieved 9 November 2017.
7. "Himachal votes: Hikkim, country's highest polling station, records 89% turnout". Hindustan Times. 9 November 2017. Retrieved 9 November 2017.
8. "Tibetans living in exile to vote first time in Himachal assembly elections". The Times of India. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
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 October 2017. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
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.
13. "C-Voter survey predicts thumping victory for BJP". Firstpost. 7 November 2017. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
14. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/tale-of-two-states-gujarat-trumps-over-himachal-pradesh-on-nota-votes/articleshow/62122042.cms
15. http://www.thehindu.com/elections/himachal-pradesh-2017/live-updates-himachal-pradesh-legislative-assembly-election-results/article21830225.ece