Himachal Pradesh [India], November 9: Voting started for the assembly elections 2017 in Himachal Pradesh on Thursday morning, wherein 338 candidates are challenging across 68 seats in this mountainous state.

 Bharatiya Janata Party's Prem Kumar Dhumal and Congress Party's Virbhadra Singh are the Chief Ministerial contestants in the two-cornered-election- fights.

Although Singh is the present Chief Minister of the state, Dhumal has dole out the post of CM twice before. Both of them have changed their constituencies and are competing from Arki and Sujanpur.

All the way through the promotional campaign, the Congress used Goods and Services Tax (GST) and demonetization as its means against the Saffron BJP. It also criticized Dhumal for the cricket association scam, in which he and his two sons, Anurag Thakur and Arun Dhumal, caught bail.

This election will take part in a crucial factor for Singh, the longest-serving Chief Minister of HP, who will serve a seventh term in the Legislative assembly if successful.

If outcomes come in support of the Congress, it will be a massive morale booster for the party which has registered a cry off in its vote share across the nation since 2014 General elections.

On the other hand, the BJP kept flashing the Congress on the corruption charges against Singh and poked fun at the serving government for sluggish act in the election campaigns.

The results of the polling will be declared after 40 days, on December 18.

Himachal Pradesh

assembly elections