Voting for Himachal Pradesh assembly election concludes, counting on December 8

Himachal Pradesh [India], November 12 (ANI): The voting in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections has concluded. The EVMs and VVPATs have been sealed. The counting of votes will be done on December 8.
Electors in Himachal Pradesh enthusiastically participated in the festival of democracy by casting their votes in the state Assembly elections on Saturday.
In the Himachal Assembly polls, the voter turnout till 5 PM, as per the announcement by the Election Commission, was 65.92%. 55% voter turnout was recorded till 3 pm. The state recorded a 37.19 per cent voter turnout till 1 pm. At 11 am, the state recorded only a 17.98 per cent voter turnout. A voter turnout of 5.02 per cent was recorded till 9 am. At the world's highest polling station booth in Tashigang, a 98.08% voter turnout has been recorded.
Voting to elect the new government in Himachal Pradesh spread across 68 seats began on Saturday morning at 8 am amid tight security. A total of 55,92,828 eligible voters cast their votes today to decide the fate of 412 candidates in the fray. Out of the total number of electorates, 27,37,845 were women, 28,54,945 men and 38 were third-gender. This time, the representation of woman candidates was 24.
The high-voltage campaigning by political parties ended on November 10, following which the electorate of Himachal Pradesh decided the political fate of the candidates today.
The main fight is between the ruling BJP in the state which is looking to retain power ditching the trend of the alternate party coming to power every five years since 1982, and Congress which is banking on its '10 guarantees' that the party listed out in its manifesto to take them home. Aam Aadmi Party is in line looking to leave a mark in the state and thus contesting on all the 68 seats alone.
The challenge for the ruling BJP will be to buck anti-incumbency and change the trend of the alternate government.
Besides these three parties, parties like the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India (CPI) and Rashtriya Devbhumi Party (RDP) were in the fray too this time.
According to Election Commission, a total of 7,881 polling stations were set up for the polls. The Kangra district had a maximum of 1,625 polling stations while the Lahaul-Spiti district had the lowest 92. There were 7,235 polling stations in rural and 646 polling stations in urban areas. Besides, three auxiliary polling stations were also set up at Sidhbari (Dharamshala), Bara Bhangal (Baijnath) and Dhillon (Kasauli).
Meanwhile, for security purposes, 67 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) comprising 6,700 personnel and 15 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) companies were deployed for holding free and fair Assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh.
Besides this, 50,000 government employees were put on poll duty. As many as 25,000 police officers were also stationed across the state. Teams from the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) and the State Disaster Relief Force (SDRF) comprising 800 personnel were posted.
In 2017, BJP swept the Himachal polls, bagging 44 of the total 68 seats while Congress managed to get just 21 seats. (ANI)