PremiumThe Election Commission of India on 14 October announced the dates for upcoming assembly election in Himachal Pradesh as 12 November.
According to the election commission, the counting of votes on 8 December. More than 43,000 fist time voters will participate in the state Assembly polls.
Elaborating the schedule of the Assembly polls, the ECI said that date of issue of gazette notification for single phase election for 68 Assembly seats will be released on 17 October.
While the last date of making nominations has been set as 25 October. The scrutiny of nominations will take place on 27 October, while the last date for withdrawal of candidatures has been set as 29 October.
The date of polling for 68 seats will take place on 12 November and the counting will happen on 8 December. The EC has set the date before election be completed as 10 December.
Addressing the media, CEC Rajiv Kumar said, "We have zero tolerance towards the distribution of any kind of inducement to voters. GST will look at e-way and goods going to poll-bound state and neighbouring states. Airports will keep a strict watch so that no unscheduled flight goes unchecked."
As per the electoral roll published on 10 October, over 55 lakh electors are registered, out of which around 55,000 are PwD electors, while over 1.22 lakh are 80+ senior citizens and 1.86 lakh first-time voters in Himachal Pradesh, said ECI.
For the smooth conduct of polls, the ECI will set up 7,881 polling stations across 68 Assembly seats. Around 142 polling stations will be operated by women and 37 polling station will be operated by Divyang people.
Last time, the Assembly elections in HP took place on 9 November, 2017, where BJP defeated the Congress and won 44 seats. Congress managed to secure only 21 seats.
Currently, the BJP has 45 MLAs in the Himachal Pradesh state Assembly, Congress has 22 and CPIM has 1.
Earlier in September, the chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar and election commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey had visited Himachal Pradesh to review poll preparedness.