Shimla: Congress leaders in the state were upbeat about their prospects in the state on Sunday, even as exit polls earlier in the week indicated a defeat in the assembly elections for the party.
Leaders were of the view that the party would repeat the government. On Saturday, chief minister Virbhadra Singh called exit polls "manipulated" and said the Congress would come to power again on the basis of the work it did in the past five years. "My exit poll says that the Congress is forming the government in the state," he had said, on returning to the state capital. "In fact, they (exit polls) should bebanned. Since I campaigned across the state, I know the people's pulse and understand their mood better."
With the state recording an all-time high turnout of 75.28%, parties and candidates have been left guessing. The fate of 338 candidates, including many bigwigs, will also be decided with the counting of votes on Monday, six weeks after the votes were cast.
In these elections, 37.83 lakh people had exercised their franchise in 68 assembly constituencies of state on November 9.
Two chief ministerial candidates- Virbhadra Singh from Congress and Prem Kumar Dhumal from BJP- had contested from new assembly constituencies of Arki in Solan district and Sujanpur in Hamirpur district, respectively. All eyes are set on these two seats to know the margin these two leaders will register for their wins this time.
During the election campaign, BJP had left Congress far behind. For BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president Amit Shah, Union home minister Rajnath Singh, Union minister Smriti Irani, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, and Uttrakhand chief minister Trivender Rawat had campaign across state by holding series of public rallies.
For Congress, Virbhadra Singh campaigned singlehandedly. While Sonia Gandhi could not campaign due to her health, Rahul Gandhi addressed three rallies in a day, and that when the election campaign was coming to an end.
The fate of many senior leaders from the BJP and the Congress is hanging in the balance. In BJP, results hold significance for senior leaders like Kripal Parmar from Fatehpur, Sarveen Chaudhary from Shahpur, Indu Goswami from Palampur, Ravinder Singh Ravi from Dehra, Kishan Kapoor from Dharamshala, Jawahar Thakur from Darang, Gulab Singh Thakur from Jogindernagar, Narender Thakur from Hamirpur, Baldev Sharma from Barsar, and Narender Bragta from Jubbal-Kotkhai.
In the Congress, the election results are important for Thakur Singh Bharmauri from Bharmaur, Asha Kumari from Dalhousie, Kuldeep Singh Pathania from Bhattiyat, Sujan Singh Pathania from Fatehpur, Chander Kumar from Jawali, Viplov Thakur from Dehra, G S Bali from Nagrota Bagwan, Sudhir Sharma from Dharamshala, and Kaul Singh Thakur from Darang.
