SHIMLA: Voting for four municipal corporations of Dharamshala, Palampur, Mandi and Solan in Himachal Pradesh started at 8am on Wednesday and by 2pm over 44% polling was recorded.
Till 12 noon, total 28.30% voting was recorded in all four municipal corporations against 13.10% voting recorded during first two hours till 10am.
There are total 279 candidates in the fray for 64 wards of four civic bodies.
In Kangra district where elections are being held for Dharamshala and Palampur municipal corporations total 44 % voting was registered till 2pm, in Mandi 47.20% voting and in Solan 41.30% voting was registered.
As the elections are being held on party symbols, it would be interesting to see whether Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) manages to open its account in the hill state as along with Congress and BJP, on many wards AAP too has fielded its candidates. After the conclusion of voting process, counting of votes would start and results would be announced by late night.
While Congress and BJP are contesting on all wards of four municipal corporations, AAP is contesting on 13 wards of Mandi municipal corporation, 7 wards of Palampur municipal corporation, 9 wards of Dharamshala municipal corporation and 14 wards of Solan municipal corporation. CPM is contesting in 2 wards of Mandi municipal corporation. Presence of rebels from Congress and BJP in all four municipal corporation wards have made the elections interesting.
Of the total candidates in the fray, 56 candidates (20.07%) are between the age of 21-30 years, 104 candidates (37.28%) are between 31-40 years, 67 candidates (24.01%) are between the age of 41-50 years, 43 candidates (15.41%) are between the age of 51-60 years while 9 candidates (3.23%) are above 60 years of age.
Dharamshala and Solan Municipal Corporations have 17 wards each while Palampur and Mandi Municipal Corporations have 15 wards each. While election for Dharamshala Municipal Corporation are being held for the second time, in rest of three municipal corporations elections are being held for the first time as they these were created during current BJP regime.
Highest number of 80 candidates are in the fray from Dharamshala where 37,986 voters will decide their fate while in Palampur 64 candidates are in the fray whose fate would be decided by 33,333 voters. In Solan. 60 candidates are trying their luck in the electoral battle and 34,814 voters will decide their fate while in Mandi, 32,533 voters will decide the fate of 75 candidates.
Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur claimed the party's victory in the four municipal corporations in Sundernagar on Tuesday. At the same time, Congress is also talking about showing its strength. Now it will be interesting to see who emerges as the winner in these corporation elections, which is being considered as the semi-final of the assembly elections due next year.
In these elections, there was a lot of accusation between Congress and BJP. In this election battle, right from Jai Ram Thakur to Congress state president Kuldeep Rathore, they attacked each other fiercely. Kuldeep Rathore accused Jai Ram Thakur of using government machinery including helicopters.
He also said that chief minister is wandering door to door for votes while Jai Ram Thakur also retaliated by saying that Rathore should not explain where he has to go and what to do.
In Mandi, the home district of Jai Ram Thakur, the BJP faced the opposition from its own MLA Anil Sharma. Not only this, on Monday evening, Anil Sharma was also seen meeting the local traders in the market.
Anil Sharma claimed that met the traders after the end of poll campaigning to know their well being during Covid pandemic. But Jai Ram Thakur on Tuesday said that he has failed to understand why Anil Sharma is so much afraid as BJP did not say anything like to scare them. He said that Anil Sharma is a BJP MLA and on Monday he was heard appealing to the voters in Mandi to vote cautiously. He said that even voters in Mandi failed to understand what actually the BJP MLA was trying to say.
Anil Sharma and Jai Ram Thakur have entered into verbal duel after the Sharma a former minister of Jai Ram cabinet opened front against the chief minister by holding a press conference and questioned the functioning of cabinet minister Mahender Singh Thakurand chief minister.
Will the dream of the BJP and chief Jai Ram Thakur’s mission repeat come true or will the Congress get a comeback ground will become clear by Wednesday late night after the results of four municipal corporations will be clear.