(MENAFN- IANS) Shimla, May 31 (IANS) Himachal Pradesh seems to be heading for a bipolar contest for four parliamentary seats along with a bypoll of six assembly seats on Saturday between the two conventional arch-rivals -- the state ruling congress and the BJP -- whose prominent faces comprise Union Minister and four-time MP Anurag Thakur, Rajya Sabha Congress veteran Anand Sharma, and bollywood actress-turned-politician Kangana Ranaut, the BJP's greenhorn.
The BJP, which won all Lok Sabha seats in 2014 and 2019, seems to be banking high on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "charisma" after his three elections rallies to retain all Parliamentary seats and win six Assembly seats, while the Congress is eyeing on its strong vote bank of 2.5-lakh government employees, whose demand of restoring the old pension scheme has been implemented by its government led by Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) remained missing from the state's political landscape, like the November 2022 Assembly polls.
Political observers told IANS the BJP has managed an edge over the Congress by holding a statewide campaign with public meetings by Prime Minister Modi and party's national leadership, comprising Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president J.P. Nadda, Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh and Piyush Goyal.
The Congress, however, largely banked on Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi.
The Congress on December 8, 2022, got an absolute majority in the Assembly elections, winning 40 seats -- six over than the half-way mark of 34 in the 68-member House, while the outgoing BJP was reduced to 25.
For the Assembly bypoll, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has given tickets to all six Congress rebels, who had supported it in the Rajya Sabha elections.
The candidates are Sudhir Sharma from Dharamsala, Rajinder Rana from Sujanpur, Ravi Thakur from Lahaul-Spiti, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal from Barsar, Chaitanya Sharma from Gagret and Devender Bhutto from Kutlehar.
These seats fell vacant due to the disqualification of the legislators for defying the party whip while passing the state budget.
Through the electioneering, Chief Minister Sukhu claimed he "is not afraid of conspiracies" being hatched against him. He accused the BJP of attempting to destabilise the elected government.
In the constituency watch, Union Minister Anurag Thakur is eyeing to retain the Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat for the fifth time in a row.
This time, he is aiming to surpass the 2019 historical win with a victory margin of about 4 lakh votes, underscoring the electorate's continued support for the BJP in the hill state.
Hamirpur is BJP's bastion from where Anurag Thakur's father and two-time Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal was thrice elected as an MP.
Traditionally, this Lok Sabha seat, made up of 17 Assembly constituencies, has been with the BJP since 1998, when Suresh Chandel was elected as the MP. He continued till 2004.
In 2007 Dhumal became the MP from Hamirpur but he later resigned to take over as the Chief Minister. This necessitated the bypoll and since 2008 Anurag Thakur has been the MP. His maiden electoral victory was at the age of 34.
Ground reports say it will not be a challenge for the Union Minister to retain this seat as legislators of three of five Assembly seats in Hamirpur, the home district of the father-son duo, which were earlier won by the state ruling Congress in December 2022 polls, have switched sides and joined the BJP.
The Congress won four of the five Assembly constituencies in the district, while an Independent won the seat, once the stronghold of the Dhumal family.
Interestingly, BJP's National President J.P. Nadda who has represented the Bilaspur (Sadar) Assembly seat three times, also falls under the Hamirpur parliamentary constituency. In December 2022 Assembly polls, the BJP won all three seats in Bilaspur.
In a unique electoral showdown in the Mandi Parliamentary constituency, the battleground shifts between "royalty" and "stardom", as Congress legislator Vikramaditya Singh, the scion of the erstwhile royal family, challenges Bollywood's 'queen', Kangana Ranaut.
Amid the clash of heritage and stardom, the sprawling constituency, one of the toughest and covers almost two-thirds of the state, saw a riveting electoral spectacle.
Even PM Modi at an impressive rally in Mandi last week tried to build bond by saying: "Times have changed but Modi hasn't. The relationship between Modi and Himachal remains as strong as ever... I proudly declare Himachal as my home while serving as Prime Minister. Similarly, a former President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai says that Himachal is his home."
The Mandi seat is currently represented by Pratibha Singh, mother of Vikramaditya Singh who belongs to the erstwhile royal family of Keonthal state. She is a three-time MP from Mandi.
Seeking votes with folded hands was tough for Congress veteran and four-time Rajya Sabha MP Anand Sharma in his new battleground Kangra, the largest Lok Sabha constituency in the state in terms of voters which plays a crucial role in state politics.
The Congress has pitted former Union Minister Sharma, known to be a 'mentor' to Chief Minister Sukhu, against debutante Rajiv Bhardwaj of the BJP, which ignored the sitting MP, Kishan Kapoor.
For Sharma, who belongs to Shimla, this would be his first electoral battle for the Lok Sabha. With a political career spanning over four decades, Sharma, who first entered the Rajya Sabha in 1984, is a surprise pick by the party.
In the Shimla (reserved) seat, the battle between BJP's sitting MP Suresh Kashyap and Congress first-time legislator from Kasauli, Vinod Sultanpuri, seems neck and neck owing to annoyance of apple growers against the BJP-led Centre over failure to regulate imported apples that is impacting the local fruit economy.
Besides riding high on his father K.D. Sultanpuri's popularity, who had represented this seat for record six times on the trot from 1980, the junior Sultanpuri is hopeful to retain the seat, which the Congress lost in the past three Lok Sabha polls, as the Congress won 13 of the 17 assembly seats that fall in the Shimla Lok Sabha constituency in the 2022 assembly polls.
Travelling to every nook and corner, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi tried to strike an emotional chord by saying the hill state is her "home" as her cottage is located in Charabra, on the outskirts of Shimla.
During campaigning, she took digs at PM Modi, accusing him of abandoning the people when disaster struck owing to heavy rain in 2023, despite his claims of considering Himachal "to be his home".
With the electorates, in the Lok Sabha polls, traditionally favouring the party at the helm in the state, these elections are being seen as a referendum on Himachal Pradesh's 17-month-old Congress government.
According to the Election Commission, a total of 57 lakh electorates will decide the future of 37 candidates in the fray for the four Lok Sabha seats and 25 for the Assembly by-polls on six seats.
In the 2019 general polls, the BJP had won all four parliamentary seats. Later in the bypoll, the Congress won the Mandi seat.
Vote count will be held on June 4, as in the rest of the country.
(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at ...)
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