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Outgoing Chief Minister Jairam Thakur submitted his resignation to Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar. “I respect the mandate. In a short while, I am going to submit my resignation to the governor.”
Independent candidates won three seats. The AAP failed to open its account, while the CPI(M) also failed to win any seats, while its sitting MLA from Theog lost. AAP got 1.10 percent, CPI(M) 0.66 percent, BSP 0.35 percent and independents and others 10.39 percent while NOTA got 0.59 percent votes.
Himachal Pradesh has not voted any government into power since 1985.
In Paonta Sahib, minister Sukhram Chowdhary defeated his nearest Congress rival Kiranesh Jing by 8,596 votes.
In Mandi district’s Sundernagar, sitting MLA and BJP leader Rakesh Jamwal defeated his nearest Congress rival by 8,125 votes.
The BJP also won the Noorpur seat, where Randhir Singh defeated Ajay Mahajan of the Congress by 18,752 votes.
Anil Sharma, son of former Union minister late Sukh Ram, retained the Mandi Sadar seat by defeating his Congress rival.
According to the Election Commission, Sharma defeated Champa Thakur of Congress by 10,006 votes.
In Shimla Urban seat, Harish Janarth of Congress defeated his nearest rival Sanjay Sood of BJP by 3,037 votes.
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister and BJP leader Jairam Thakur has won the Seraj assembly constituency by a margin of over 38,000 votes from Chet Ram of the Congress.
Pratibha Singh is considered the main contender for the chief minister’s post, followed by former party chief Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu and outgoing CLP leader Mukesh Agnihotri.
Sitting Congress MLA from Shimla (Rural) Vikramaditya Singh, son of former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, retained his seat by defeating his nearest BJP rival Ravi Kumar Mehta by 13,860 votes.
In Dalhousie assembly seat, BJP candidate DS Thakur defeated six-time Congress MLA Asha Kumari by a margin of 9,918 votes.
The counting of votes for the 68-member assembly began at 8 am.
This time the BJP’s slogan was “Raj nahi, rivaj badlega”, which means, “tradition will change, not the government”.
In their addresses to party workers in Delhi after the election results were announced, both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief JP Nadda highlighted the less than one per cent difference between the vote share of the Congress and the BJP.
For the Congress, a victory in Himachal Pradesh was a must for a revival as it has been plagued by electoral defeats over the past few years.
On November 12, around 76.44 per cent voters exercised their franchise. Altogether 412 candidates are in the fray, including 24 women and 99 independents.
The BJP and the Congress contested all 68 seats, while the AAP fielded candidates in 67 seats, the Bahujan Samaj Party in 53 and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 11.
In 2017, the BJP had won 44 seats, the Congress 21 and the CPIM one. Two independent candidates also won.
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