By Baldev S. Chauhan, IANS
Shimla : Four days after the Gujarat verdict, Himachal Pradesh prepared to count Friday votes cast in assembly polls with the ruling Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) both claiming they will win.
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh of the Congress said he was confident of retaining power in the hill state.
“The Congress has fought this election on the strength of the development work it has carried out. We will be voted to power once again,” he said here.
But realising that a clear majority in the 68-member assembly might elude him, he said the Congress had the support of “six strong independent candidates” as well.
But the BJP camp, its morale boosted by its spectacular victory in Gujarat, is upbeat. Prem Kumar Dhumal, the chief ministerial candidate of the BJP, said the party would win at least 45 seats and form the government.
He went on to say that if voted to power, “we will take oath in Shimla Dec 30”.
The counting of votes that took place in two stages over the past six weeks for 68 seats of the assembly will start Friday at 8 a.m. The entire results are expected within three hours.
“Some 5,000 people have been deputed to count votes at 41 centres across the state,” said Manisha Nanda, the state chief electoral officer.
Forty-one engineers of the Bharat Electronic Ltd, Bangalore, will assist these officials to ensure smooth functioning of the electronic voting machines (EVM).
A total of 336 candidates contested the elections. The Congress and BJP fielded candidates in all 68 seats.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) also fielded candidates in all the seats for the first time. It gave ticket to many rebels of the Congress and the BJP.
In the first stage, voting took place in three tribal seats of Bharmaur, Lahual and Spiti and Kinnaur in the high mountainous region because of the fear of early snowfall and chilling weather conditions. The second stage of polling took place for the remaining 65 seats Dec 19.
An estimated 3.2 million people voted, amounting to a turnout of 71 percent.
In the 2003 elections, the Congress won 43 seats and the BJP 16. Nine seats went to independents and smaller groups.