The Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly election, 2017 was held on 9 November 2017 to elect all 68 members of the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly.
The term of the previous Legislative Assembly ended on 7 January 2017. Since 2012, the Indian National Congress Party was in power in the outgoing assembly with 36 seats. The lone opposition party was Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Constitution of India states that the term of Legislative Assemblies is five years, at maximum. The term of current Legislative Assembly ends on 7 January 2018. The previous election, held in 2012 resulted in Congress gaining majority of seats and Virbhadra Singh becoming Chief Minister.
Himachal Pradesh, as a state of India follows Parliamentary system of government similar to other states. The Government is responsible to the Assembly and stays in power only if it has the support of majority members. Elections take place on a first past the post basis, the candidate with the most votes wins the seat regardless of an absolute majority. Every citizen of the state, who is 18 and above is eligible to vote. The Governor then invites the leader of the largest party or coalition to form the government. As is common in most other first past the post electoral systems, the state's politics are dominated by two parties – the Indian National Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party.
State elections in India are often fought on central issues, and the results are regarded as a referendum on the central government's policies. This is especially true in the case of states where the two national parties – Congress and BJP are in direct contest with each other. The state units of the parties are not completely independent and the central authority of the parties has a considerable influence over candidate selection and campaigning. However, state issues do tend to dominate the discourse. The Congress party has projected its current Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh as its Chief Ministerial candidate for the elections. BJP announced Prem Kumar Dhumal as its Chief Ministerial candidate. Dhumal, however, lost the election so eventually the BJP made Jai Ram Thakur the Chief Minister of state, who won from the Seraj constituency over health union/central minister JP Nadda. In the 17th Assembly segment, Tashigang village becomes the highest polling station at an altitude of 15256 feet. The polling station falls in Buddhist-dominated Lahul-Spiti that form the Mandi Lok Sabha seat, the second-largest constituency in India. Situated at about 29 Kilometres from the India-China border, the polling station covers two villages - Tashigang and Gets. As per the revised electoral roll, the two villages have 48 Voters of which 30 are men and 18 women.
Preparations for elections
VVPAT-fitted electronic voting machines were used in all of the 7,521 polling stations, the first time that the entire state will see the implementation of VVPAT to ensure greater transparency to the voter. Over 5 million voters are registered in the state. VVPAT slips were counted in 2 polling stations each across all 68 Himachal Pradesh constituencies.
India's first voter, Shyam Saran Negi, voted for the 29th time at Kalpa polling station in Kinnaur. Group of voters Voters population Male 2,531,321 Female 2,457,032 Third gender 169 Total voters 5,025,541
Tibetan voters
Indian electoral rules allow any citizen of India above 18 years of age to vote in any states and union territories of India, provided he/she is a resident of that state. India has a large Tibetan diaspora that fled from Tibet along with the Dalai Lama. Dharamshala, a city in Himachal Pradesh, is the capital of the Central Tibetan Administration. The Government has allowed Tibetans born in India between 1950 and 1987 to vote in the elections. This however, does not affect their relationship with the CTA.
Candidate list BJP declared list of 68 candidates on 18 October 2017 which includes 14 first timers with 21 new faces.
Schedule
EventDateDay Date for nominations 16 October 2017 Monday Last date for filing nominations 23 October 2017 Monday Date for scrutiny of nominations 24 October 2017 Tuesday Last date for withdrawal of candidatures 26 October 2017 Thursday Date of poll 9 Nov 2017 Thursday Date of counting 18 December 2017 Monday Date before which the election shall be completed 20 December 2017 Wednesday
Opinion polls Polling firm/Commissioner Date published BJP INC OthersIndia-Today (Axis) Opinion Poll 24 October 2017 49% 38% 13%ABP News CSDS30 October 201747%41%12%C-Voter7 November 201750%37%11%
Results The results were declared on 18 December 2017.
+ ← Summary of the 9 November 2017 Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly election results Parties and coalitions Popular vote Seats Votes % ±pp Won +/− Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 48.8 10.3 44 18 Indian National Congress (INC) 41.7 1.1 21 15 Independents 6.3 6.1 2 3 Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) 1.5 0.1 1 1 Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) 0.5 0.7 0 Himachal Lokhit Party (HLP) colspan="2" 2.4 0 1 None of the Above (NOTA) 0.9 0.9 colspan="2" Total 100.00 68 ±0Valid votes99.64Invalid votes0.36Votes cast / turnout75.57Abstentions 24.43Registered voters
Results by District DistrictTotal SeatsBJPINCOTH Chamba 54 1 0Kangra1511 3 1 Lahaul and Spiti11 0 0 Kullu43 1 0 Mandi109 0 1 Hamirpur5 23 0 Una53 2 0 Bilaspur43 1 0 Solan5 23 0 Sirmaur53 2 0 Shimla8 34 1 Kinnaur 1 01 0 Total 68 44213
Results by Constituency
District#ConstituencyWinnerRunner-upMarginCandidateParty VotesCandidateParty VotesChamba 1Churah (SC)Hans RajBJP28,293Surender BhardwajINC23,3494,9442Bharmour (ST)Jia LalBJP25,744Thakur Singh BharmouriINC18,3957,3493ChambaPawan NayyarBJP26,763Neeraj NayarINC24,8841,8794DalhousieAsha KumariINC24,224D. S. ThakurBJP23,6685565BhattiyatBikram Singh JaryalBJP29,119Kuldeep Singh PathaniaINC22,2346,885Kangra 6NurpurRakesh PathaniaBJP34,871Ajay MahajanINC28,2296,6427Indora (SC)Reeta DeviBJP29,213Kamal KishoreINC28,1181,0958FatehpurSujan Singh PathaniaINC18,962Kripal Singh ParmarBJP17,6781,2849JawaliArjun SinghBJP36,999Chander KumarINC28,7868,21310DehraHoshyar SinghInd24,206Ravinder Singh RaviBJP20,2923,91411Jaswan-PragpurBikram SinghBJP23,583Surinder Singh MankotiaINC21,7211,86212JawalamukhiRamesh Chand DhawalaBJP27,914Sanjay RattanINC21,4506,46413Jaisinghpur (SC)Ravinder KumarBJP29,357Yadvinder GomaINC18,64710,71014SullahVipin Singh ParmarBJP38,173Jagjiwan PaulINC27,88210,29115NagrotaArun KumarBJP32,039G S BaliINC31,0391,00016KangraPawan Kumar KajalINC25,549Sanjay ChaudharyBJP19,3416,20817ShahpurSarveen ChoudharyBJP23,104Major (Ret.) Vijai Singh MankotiaInd16,9576,14718DharamshalaKishan KapoorBJP26,050Sudhir SharmaINC23,0532,99719PalampurAshish ButailINC24,252Indu GoswamiBJP19,9284,32420Baijnath (SC)Mulkh Raj PremiBJP32,102Kishori LalINC19,43312,669Lahaul andSpiti21Lahaul and Spiti (ST)Ram Lal MarkandaBJP7,756Ravi ThakurINC6,2781,478Kullu 22ManaliGovind Singh ThakurBJP27,173Hari Chand SharmaINC24,1683,00523KulluSunder Singh ThakurINC31,423Maheshwar SinghBJP29,8851,53824BanjarSurender ShourieBJP28,007Aditya Vikram SinghINC24,7673,24025Anni (SC)Kishori LalBJP30,559Paras RamINC24,5765,983Mandi 26Karsog (SC)Hira LalBJP22,102Mansa RamINC17,2724,83027SundernagarRakesh Kumar JamwalBJP32,545Sohan LalINC23,2829,26328Nachan (SC)Vinod KumarBJP38,154Lal Singh KaushalINC22,25815,89629SerajJai Ram ThakurBJP35,519Chet RamINC24,26511,25430DarangJawahar ThakurBJP31,392Kaul SinghINC24,8516,54131JogindernagarPrakash RanaInd31,214Gulab Singh ThakurBJP24,5796,63532DharampurMahender SinghBJP27,931ChandershekharINC15,96711,96433MandiAnil SharmaBJP31,282Champa ThakurINC21,02510,25734Balh (SC)Colonel Inder Singh GandhiBJP34,704Prakash ChaudharyINC21,89312,81135SarkaghatColonel Inder SinghBJP30,705Pawan KumarINC21,4039,302Hamirpur 36Bhoranj (SC)Kamlesh KumariBJP27,961Suresh KumarINC21,0696,89237SujanpurRajinder RanaINC25,288Prem Kumar DhumalBJP23,3691,91938HamirpurNarinder ThakurBJP25,854Kuldeep Singh PathaniaINC18,6237,23139BarsarInder Dutt LakhanpalINC25,679Baldev SharmaBJP25,24043940NadaunSukhvinder Singh SukhuINC30,980Vijay AgnihotriBJP28,6312,349Una 41Chintpurni (SC)Balvir SinghBJP32,488Kuldip KumarINC23,9098,57942GagretRajesh ThakurBJP33,977Rakesh KaliaINC24,6579,32043HaroliMukesh AgnihotriINC35,095Ram KumarBJP27,7187,37744UnaSatpal RaizadaINC31,360Satpal Singh SattiBJP28,1643,19645KutleharVirender KanwarBJP31,101Vivek SharmaINC25,4955,606Bilaspur 46Jhanduta (SC)Jeet Ram KatwalBJP29,030Beeru Ram KishoreINC24,0684,96247GhumarwinRajinder GargBJP34,846Rajesh DharmaniINC24,41110,43548BilaspurSubhash ThakurBJP31,547Bumber ThakurINC24,6856,86249Sri Naina DevijiRam Lal ThakurINC28,119Randhir SharmaBJP27,0771,042Solan 50ArkiVirbhadra SinghINC34,499Rattan Singh PalBJP28,4486,05151NalagarhLakhvinder Singh RanaINC25,872 Krishan Lal ThakurBJP24,6301,24252DoonParamjeet Singh PammiBJP29,701Ram KumarINC25,3824,31953Solan (SC)Dhani Ram ShandilINC26,200Rajesh KashyapBJP25,52967154Kasauli (SC)Rajiv SaizalBJP23,656Vinod SultanpuriINC23,214442Sirmaur 55Pachhad (SC)Suresh Kumar KashyapBJP30,243Gangu Ram MusafirINC23,8166,42756NahanDr. Rajeev BindalBJP31,563Ajay SolankeyINC27,5733,99057Sri Renukaji (SC)Vinay KumarINC22,028Balbir SinghBJP16,8685,16058Paonta SahibSukh Ram ChaudharyBJP36,011Kirnesh JungINC23,39212,61959ShillaiHarsh Wardhan Singh ChauhanINC29,171Baldev SinghBJP25,0464,125Shimla 60ChopalBalbir Singh VermaBJP29,537Subhash Chand ManglateINC24,9504,58761TheogRakesh SinghaCPM24,791Rakesh VermaBJP22,8081,98362KasumpatiAnirudh SinghINC22,061Vijay JyotiBJP12,6649,39763ShimlaSuresh BhardwajBJP14,012Harish JanarthaInd12,1091,90364Shimla RuralVikramaditya SinghINC28,275Dr. Pramod SharmaBJP23,3954,88065Jubbal-KotkhaiNarinder BragtaBJP27,466Rohit ThakurINC26,4041,06266Rampur (SC)Nand LalINC25,730Prem Singh DaraikBJP21,6934,03767Rohru (SC)Mohan Lal BraktaINC29,134Shashi BalaBJP19,7269,408Kinnaur 68Kinnaur (ST)Jagat Singh NegiINC20,029Tejwant Singh NegiBJP19,909120
Bypolls (2017-2022) S.NoDateConstituencyMLA before electionParty before electionElected MLAParty after election1821 October 2019DharamshalaKishan Kapoor Vishal Nehria 55PachhadSuresh Kumar KashyapReena Kashyap6530 October 2021Jubbal-KotkhaiNarinder Bragta Rohit Thakur8FatehpurSujan Singh Pathania Bhawani Singh Pathania50ArkiVirbhadra SinghSanjay Awasthy
References