NEW DELHI: Elections to the Himachal Pradesh assembly will be held on November 12, the Election Commission announced on Friday. The counting of votes will be on December 8, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar told a press conference here.
The Commission did not announce the elections for the Gujarat assembly, the term of which ends on February 18, 2023. Over 55 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise for 68 assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh, Kumar said.
The CEC said the Commission was following past precedence in keeping the announcing in abeyance the schedule for Gujarat assembly. There are 1.86 lakh first-time voters, 1.22 lakh aged 80-plus and 1,184 voters who are above 100 years of age.
The term of the Gujarat Assembly ends on February 18, 2023 while the term of the Himachal House will end on January 8, 2023. In the 182-seated Gujarat Assembly, there are 111 BJP and 62 Congress MLAs.
Last month, the Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey visited Gujarat and Himachal to review poll preparedness. The 14th Gujarat Legislative Assembly election was held on December 9 and 14 in 2017 to elect the Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA). The votes were counted on 18 December.
The incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) obtained a simple majority with an increase in the vote share in the last election. Despite a decrease in the number of seats, the BJP retained its simple majority in the house and formed government for the sixth time. In the results declared for all the 182-seated Gujarat Assembly, BJP won 99 seats, Congress wins 77, 1 seat was won by NCP while Bhartiya Tribal Party and Independent candidate won 2 and 3 seats respectively.
Himachal Pradesh voted to elect its legislative assembly on November 9, 2017.In the 68-member Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) defeated the Congress Party and won 44 seats while Congress secured only 21 seats in 2017. At present, in Himachal Pradesh legislative assembly, the BJP has 45 MLAs, while Congress has 22 and CPIM has 1 MLA. In percentage terms, the BJP won 48.79 per cent of the total valid votes, followed by the Congress (41.68 per cent) and Independents (6.34 per cent).
