Himachal Votes For 'Riwaaz' As Congress Wrests Control Of Hill State From BJP

Himachal Pradesh Election Results 2022: Himachal Pradesh has not returned any incumbent government to power in the last nearly four decades.

Congress flag.

Source : File Photo/AFP

Himachal Pradesh continued its 'riwaaz' (tradition) of not repeating a government as the Congress registered a win in the hill state with simple majority. The Congress bagged 40 seats, compared to BJP's 25. Three seats went to Independents. Power has switched between the BJP and the Congress for nearly four decades, with both parties failing to win consecutive terms. Himachal Pradesh has not returned any incumbent government to power in the last nearly four decades.

For the Congress, a victory in Himachal was much needed for its survival after a spate of electoral losses in the last few years.

The Congress had from the beginning of the campaigning expressed confidence in the party winning the assembly polls, saying the voters would go with the tradition and decide on the fundamental issues of price rise, joblessness, and other challenges they have been facing. A big promise made by the party was to bring back the Old Pension Scheme. 

The Congress, which holds power on its own only in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, hopes that the party's revival will start from Himachal Pradesh.

The new entrant Aam Aadmi Party, which carried out a muted campaign for the November 12 elections, failed to win any seat in the state, though it emerged victorious in the neighbouring state of Punjab in the assembly elections held in March this year.

Earlier in the day, trends showed the ruling BJP and the Congress fighting a neck-and-neck battle, but the gap widened as the counting progressed. 

About 76.44 per cent of voters had exercised their franchise in the assembly polls held on November 12.

As many as 52,859 (87 per cent approximately) postal ballots were received by December 6 from all over the state — an increase of 17 per cent as compared to 2017. A total of 45,126 postal ballots were received in 2017, news agency PTI reported.

At 61 per cent, Himachal Pradesh was the state with the highest BJP vote share in the entire country in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. The BJP won the assembly elections in 2017 with a comfortable majority of 44 seats, with 21 going to the Congress. BJP's chief ministerial candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal had, however, lost, which paved the way for Jairam Thakur to become the CM. Thakur has retained his seat, Seraj.