Shimla: The Congress on Thursday secured a 43.90 per cent vote share as it wrested Himachal Pradesh from the BJP by winning 40 seats in the 68-member assembly in the hill state, maintaining its tradition of voting the government out of power since 1985. Despite getting 43 per cent. vote share, BJP could win only 25 seats, many regions saw low victory margin. Three independents also emerged victorious in the assembly elections held on November 12. The vote share for the Congress had increased as compared to the previous assembly elections. The BJP and the Congress contested all 68 seats, while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) fielded candidates in 67, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 53 and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) in 11. . 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. 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. The BJP gave the slogan “Raj nahi, rivaz badlega”, meaning “the convention will change, not the government”, but failed to buck the trend. Himachal Pradesh has not voted any government into power since 1985.
Nadda thanked BJP workers for their hard work in his home state of Himachal Pradesh and said that “Raj may change, but the ‘custom’ has also changed as the difference in the vote share of the top two parties was less than 1 per cent”. ” In the 2017 state elections, the BJP won 44 seats, the Congress 21, the CPI(M) one and independents two. Then BJP got 48.8 percent votes, Congress 41.7 percent, independents 6.3 percent and CPI(M) 1.5 percent, while NOTA got 0.9 percent votes.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi thanked the people of Himachal Pradesh for his party’s “decisive victory” and assured them that every promise made by the party would be fulfilled. Accepting defeat, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said he respected the people’s mandate and submitted his resignation to the Governor. Official sources said Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar has accepted his resignation.