SHIMLA: Himachal Pradesh voters, over 50 lakh, will exercise their franchise on Saturday to elect the 68-member Assembly in the single-phase poll that commenced at 8 a.m. and will continue till 5 p.m.
There were no reports of any delays in the polling process, an election officer said, "despite the chilly weather and small snags at polling booths in several regions." 24 of the 412 candidates are women, while 388 are men. 55,92,828 people will cast ballots to elect their representatives. 193,106 of them are 18 to 19-year-olds who are casting their first ballots. There are 56,501 voters who are disabled and 121,409 voters over the age of 80. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress are the leading contenders.
The BJP leadership, led by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, appears to be banking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "charisma" in the face of strong anti-incumbency winds, while the main Opposition Congress is eyeing a return to power by courting its 2.5 lakh government workers, the state's key vote pool, with a promise to reinstate the old pension scheme.
The senior leadership of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is running in the Assembly elections for the first time, has been absent from the state as its leaders concentrate on growing their support base in another Gujarat state that is also headed for elections.
In the 2017 Assembly elections, the BJP had won 44 seats, while the Congress 21, the CPM one and Independents two.
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