1. At the nub of the struggle is whether or not the BJP succumbs to the state’s “rivaaj”, or custom, of adjusting the federal government each election. Rebels are a serious headache for the ruling social gathering. Pitching PM Narendra Modi’s face together with Jairam Thakur’s work, it insisted that “continuity” is vital to growth. Its chief argument: “Double engine” — identical social gathering in energy in state and at Centre — will guarantee hindered work. It cited one other Himalayan state, Uttarakhand, for instance of defeating the change-every-election pattern.

2. The Congress, which says the election is about native points, needs the voters go by the four-decade custom of voting out the incumbent. Beset with a management disaster because the loss of life of veteran Virbhadra Singh, the social gathering says it will sail again to energy as its seat-wise ticket allocation has been “much better than before”. Virbhadhra Singh’s wife Pratibha Singh is the state unit chief; son Vikramaditya Singh is amongst candidates.

3. For the BJP, the chief fear is that it has 21 rebels. The contest, thus, is a status concern for its nationwide chief JP Nadda, a Himachal veteran. He was as soon as a minister within the state beneath Prem Kumar Dhumal. Mr Dhumal is amongst these not contesting — he insists he retired on his personal — although the “denial of ticket” to him and others has made headlines, all of the extra as a result of many leaders cried on stage.

4. The BJP acquired Union ministers and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, seen as an aggressive face of its Hindutva ideology, to marketing campaign in Himachal. For the Congress, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra held rallies whereas her brother Rahul Gandhi most well-liked to not depart his ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ for this marketing campaign. Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress’s first non-Gandhi chief in 24 years, campaigned too. 

5. While the Congress has run a low-key marketing campaign even in PM Modi’s stronghold Gujarat, which votes subsequent month, it might want to win Himachal to reverse its downslide and hearth up its cadres. The social gathering has did not win — or make a major affect — in 9 states in about two years. There are 9 extra state polls subsequent yr, together with in Hindi heartland states of Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the one ones the place Congress has chief ministers.

6. Early this yr the Congress misplaced energy in Himachal’s neigbouring state Punjab to the Aam Aadmi Party. The AAP is contesting Himachal however its focus, evidently, remained on Gujarat. 

7. Congress’s promise of restoring the pre-2004 Old Pension Scheme grew to become a serious concern because the state has over 2 lakh authorities staff. The BJP has promised implementation of Uniform Civil Code and eight lakh jobs within the state. On pension, it says that “if anyone would restore the old scheme, it will be the BJP”.

8. Besides Chief Minister Jairam Thakur from Seraj, vital candidates embody minister Suresh Bhardwaj from Kasumpti, Congress Legislature Party chief Mukesh Agnihotri from Haroli, Vikramaditya Singh from Shimla Rural, and Congress marketing campaign committee chief Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu.

9. For the voting from 8 am to five pm, the Election Commission arrange 7,884 polling stations, together with three in far-flung areas. The highest sales space was in Tashigang in Kaza in Lahaul-Spiti district, at a peak of 15,256 ft, for 52 voters.

10. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, there was a 72.4 per cent voter turnout. It went as much as 74.6 per cent within the 2017 meeting elections, the very best in 15 years.

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