By Baldev S. Chauhan, IANS
Shimla : The weather may play a key role in Wednesday’s assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh where the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be taking on one another — almost like Gujarat.
Politicians, election officials and voters are all praying that the weather does not turn rough when polling takes place for 65 assembly seats across the hill state of 6.3 million.
The weatherman has forecast snow and rain in the next day or two. If that happens, it could seriously affect voter turnout because the mid and the higher hills are prone to heavy snowfall in December.
A worried Election Commission has fixed Dec 22 as the next day for polling in the event balloting becomes an impossible affair Wednesday.
Campaigning ended Monday evening in the state with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of the Congress and BJP leader L.K. Advani joining others to woo voters ahead of the second and last phase of polling.
The election campaign has been a rather long one this time as polling for the first phase took place Nov 14 in the three tribal seats of Bharmaur, Lahaul and Spiti, and Kinnaur due to fear of early snowfall in the high mountains.
Corruption, unemployment and price rise have been the dominant campaign themes for both Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh of the Congress and the opposition BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal.
This time the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is contesting all the 68 seats for the first time in the hope of establishing itself as a force in the state.
But the BSP received a major setback barely two days before polling when its state unit president Balwant Singh quit alleging irregularities in the allotment of party funds and ticket.
The resignation is expected to benefit both the Congress and the BJP, many of whose rebels had joined the potential third force.
In 2003, 74.5 percent of the electorate voted. The Dhumal-led BJP lost and the Virbhadra Singh-led Congress was voted to power.
In a house of 68 seats, the Congress won 43 and the BJP 16. Independents and others got nine seats.
According to Chief Electoral Officer Manisha Nanda, there are 4.4 million voters for Wednesday’s 65 seats and 5,934 polling centres.
There are 324 candidates in the fray. Arki assembly seat in Solan district has the largest number of candidates — nine.
The BJP, Congress and BSP have fielded candidates in all seats. The Lok Janshakti Party is contesting 38 seats, the Communist Party of India-Marxist six and there are independents and other smaller groups.
Polling staff and material are being airlifted to some of the snow bound areas including Dodra Kwar in Shimla district and Bara Banghal in Kangra district as these areas are already cut of from the rest of India by road due to snowfall.
The counting of votes in Himachal Pradesh will take place Dec 28.