Mandi, November 3
More than 46 lakh voters will decide which party will form the next government in the state based on the candidates’ rapport with the public, internal squabbles within various parties in each constituency, anti-incumbency factor in the Assembly elections tomorrow.

The silence of the voters, however, is giving sleepless nights to the candidates and keeping political pundits guessing. Issues of price rise and corruption raised by rival parties is a “familiar blame game” voters say.

“It is for the first time that they have observed how both the BJP and the Congress men are out to defeat their own candidates in many constituencies to settle their political scores,” voters say.

From Dharampur in Mandi to Udaipur in Lahaul-Spiti, voters seemed have made up their mind, but they are not ready to reveal their cards, keeping the candidates and parties on tenterhooks. “It is the proverbial lull before the storm as each sitting MLA is faced with the anti-incumbency factor with the ruling party being on the defensive. The situation was similar in last four general Assembly elections,” said Dinu Kashyap, president, Progressive Writers Association.

It is for the first time that no candidate, minister or MLA is sure of his or her win.

“It is a sign of a vibrant and stronger democracy that has been ushering in the state because voters have greater participation and understanding of the candidates’ behaviour as well as their rapport with people,” says politician-turned-writer Dilaram Shabab (92).

“The voters are judging the overall performance of the sitting MLA and ministers and government. This has made the anti-incumbency factor stronger in most constituencies. To combat this anti-incumbency both the BJP and the Congress have floated new faces. The voters, however, judge the candidates on the basis of their attitude, rapport and the ability to lead,” Kashyap added.

Observers feel that the time to impose a candidate on people has passed and thus fielding new faces may boomerang. “The anti-incumbency factor is stronger in cases where an MLA is seeking election for the third or more terms because the common man is disillusioned with the representative as his expectations are higher each time,” Shabab adds.

Shimla, November 3
With their native places becoming parts of other constituencies due to delimitation, many stalwarts from various parties will not be able to vote for themselves as their segments stand re-carved.

Prominent among them is Chief Minister PK Dhumal as his native place Samirpur is now a part of Bhoranj constituency. He will cast his vote in this segment while he is himself contesting from Hamirpur constituency.

State Congress chief and former Union minister Virbhadra Singh will cast his vote in Rampur. This time, he is contesting from the newly created Shimla Rural constituency while Rohru, which he has represented in the past, has been reserved for Scheduled Caste.

Ministers Ravinder Singh Ravi and Ramesh Dhawala are sailing in the same boat. Ravi will vote in Jaisinghpur while he is contesting from Dehra. Dhawala will vote in Dehra even though he is the BJP candidate from Jwalamukhi.

Ousted from their home turfs of Solan and Baijnath due to their segments being reserved, former BJP minister Rajeev Bindal and Sudhir Sharma of the Congress will not be able to vote for themselves. While Bindal is contesting from Nahan, Sharma is in the fray from Dharamsala.

Anita Verma of the Congress and sitting BJP legislator Urmil Thakur, both contesting from Sujanpur, cannot vote for themselves as they are registered as voters in Hamirpur.

Vijai Singh Mankotia of the Congress, contesting from Shahpur, will vote in Kangra. His native place Tiara is now a part of Kangra constituency. Rakesh Verma, associate BJP legislator contesting from Theog, will vote in Chopal.

Former minister Kuldeep Kumar, contesting from Chintpurni, has his home in Gagret. He has contested from this constituency earlier. Tikender Panwar’s home is in Shimla Rural while he is the CPM’s candidate from Shimla.

Hamirpur/Una, November 3
The stakes in the Assembly elections to be held tomorrow are quite high for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Hamirpur and Una districts, with five Assembly seats each.

Both districts are significant for the BJP since Hamirpur is the home district of Chief Minister PK Dhumal and Una the home district of state BJP president Sat Pal Singh Satti.

Dhumal and Satti are contesting from Hamirpur and Una constituencies, respectively. The BJP’s party organisation is strong in the two districts.

In the last Assembly elections, its candidates won seven seats. In the Lok Sabha by-election in 2008 and the general election in 2009, the BJP candidate maintained a substantial lead in all Assembly segments except Haroli (Santokhgarh).

This time, Satti’s organisational capabilities will be on test and only time will tell whether or not the party wins a majority of seats in Una district.

Dhumal’s stature and acumen are important for turning the BJP government’s slogan of “Mission Repeat” into a reality by winning a majority of seats in Hamirpur district.

The BJP is banking on development undertaken by the state government and Dhumal’s tag attached to Hamirpur district.

Amritsar, November 3
Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee chief Virbhadra Singh paid a ‘secret visit’ to Dera Radha Soami in Beas, about 40 km from here, this morning.

The visit is being directly linked to the Assembly elections, especially in view of the timing, even though it was not a part of his official tour.

Sources close to him said he wanted to pay the visit alone and they were not aware of what transpired in the meeting. No party worker in Punjab was aware of the visit as his official visit was scheduled for November 28.

Virbhadra Singh landed at Guru Ram Dass International Airport in Amritsar around 11:25 am by a chartered helicopter and remained with dera head Baba Gurinder Singh Dhillon at his residence inside the dera for around two hours.

“He was alone when he met the Baba in a separate room. It was a personal visit just to seek the Baba’s blessings,” said Amarjeet Singh Tikka, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee secretary, who accompanied him.

Dera zonal secretary Gurminder Singh, dera secretary JS Sethi and Capt Rajesh accompanied Virbhadra.

Solan, November 3
To encourage voters to exercise their right to franchise, a candlelight march was taken out at Dharampur in Kasauli last evening.

The march was part of a series of programmes being organised under the Systematic voters education and electoral participation programme undertaken to increase voter participation in the polls.

As many as 100 students from the Industrial Training Institute (ITI), local residents and youth took part in the march. The participants carrying placards went around the town to spread the message of the importance of voting in democracy. The march was led by Lalit Jain, an IAS officer. Principal, ITI, Purnima Sharma, also took part.

Under the programme, various activities, including mobile vans fitted with the public address system, were used to motivate voters to cast their votes on November 4 to strengthen democracy.

The programme aims to build a culture of participative democracy among the citizens and ensure that the voters, especially in the rural areas, are informed about their right and its impact in the formation of governments.

DC’s appeal to voters

Hamirpur: District Election Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner, Hamirpur, Rajender Singh Thakur has appealed to the public to exercise their franchise in the Assembly elections on Sunday to strengthen democracy.

He said the Election Commission of India (ECI) had made elaborate arrangements for ensuring free and fair elections and the electorate should vote without any pressure and fear.

He said polling would be held from 8 am to 5 pm and the Election Department had distributed voter number slips in every house and voters could verify the same at the polling booth.

Fourteen government documents had been prescribed by the ECI, besides photo identity cards to establish the identity of voters, he added. 

Chamba, November 3
Taleru polling station with 24 electors in the Dalhousie Assembly constituency of Chamba district has the lowest number of voters in the state. Six poll officials, including two security personnel, will conduct the poll in this polling booth.

Surrounded by mountainous terrains and inaccessible from nearby polling stations of the region, the Taleru polling station covers a small hamlet which is situated on the bank of the Chamera reservoir.

There are three other polling stations having less than 100 voters, which include Kinyur with 74 voters, Chark Bhatori with 78 votes in Bharmour (ST) Assembly constituency and DPF, Saloh, having 84 voters in Churah (SC) Assembly constituency of the district.

Sunil Choudhary, Deputy Commissioner, Chamba, said the Sarog polling station with 1,112 voters in the Dalhousie Assembly constituency had the maximum number of voters in the district.

The Tepa polling station is the highest polling both in the district, while the Chasak Bhatori polling booth in the Pangi valley is the second highest polling booth in the district.

Shimla, November 3
The Election Commission has introduced Braille signage features in electronic voting machines (EVMs) to facilitate the 1,162 visually impaired electors to vote without the help of others.

Chief Electoral Officer Narinder Chauhan said all presiding officers in the state would be provided Braille ballot paper sheets to assist Braille-literate voters.

He said out of a total of 46,08,359 electors, 1,162 were visually impaired. Kangra district has the highest number of 415 visually impaired voters.

Chauhan said Mandi district has 144 visually impaired electors, Shimla-176, Hamirpur-112, Kullu-95, Una-70, Bilaspur-29 and Sirmaur-99.

He said out of the total 1,162 visually impaired electors only 36 were braille literate.

Palampur, November 3
Residents of Ashapuri village have decided not to cast their vote in the elections as a mark of protest against the failure of the state government to heal the wounds of the next of kin of victims of the Ashapuri bus mishap.

In September, 29 persons of this village lost their lives when an HRTC bus rolled down a 500-metre-deep gorge. Every family in the village lost a member, on an average.

When mediapersons visited the village this afternoon, residents complained that no minister or Member of Parliament had visited the village after
the accident.

They further said a number of leaders had flocked their village seeking votes after the elections were announced. They regretted that no leader had turned up when they were in a state of shock.

They pointed out that a number of families had failed to get financial assistance till date because of certain official bottlenecks. Keeping this in view, they had decided not to vote.