National News
First win declared by Election Commission in Himachal Pradesh
The first win has been declared in Kasumpti for Congress’ Anirudh Singh. He won by a margin of over 9397 votes against BJP’s Vijay Jyoti. In the 2012 elections, Mr. Singh had won by a margin of 9886 votes.
Early trends show that BJP is all set to oust the Congress in Himachal Pradesh,according to the Election Commission of India data. Prem Kumar Dhumal, BJP’s chief ministerial candidate in Himachal Pradesh, was trailing behind Congress’s Rajinder Rana in Sujanpur, according to early trends.
In Himachal Pradesh, the BJP was ahead in 40 seats while the ruling Congress is leading in 21, according to early Election Commission trends. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) was leading in one seat while Independents were leading in two.
Congress veteran and six-time Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and his son Vikramaditya Singh are leading from Arki and Shimla(Rural) respectively, according to early trends.
The Congress and the BJP had 36 and 26 seats respectively in the outgoing House. The hill state witnessed a record 75.28 per cent turnout.
Himachal Pradesh has a tradition of change in government after every elections and going by the trend, this time it appears to be the turn of the BJP which is upbeat after the exit polls predicted a victory for the saffron party.
The BJP ousted the Congress in 1990 and the Congress avenged defeat in 1993. The BJP formed the government with the help of Himachal Vikas Congress in 1998 and the Congress was back in power in 2003. The BJP made a comeback in 2007.
