In Himachal Pradesh, voting for assembly elections will be held tomorrow. A total of 412 candidates, including 24 women, are in the fray for 68 Assembly seats. Polling, will start at 8 AM, and end at 5 in the evening.<\/p>\n
The BJP and Congress are contesting all 68 seats. The Aam Aadmi Party has fielded candidates in 67 constituencies. CPI(M) is contesting on 11 seats, BSP 53, CPI on 1, and others on 45. Talking to AIR News, Chief Electoral Officer, Manish Garg, said 157 all women polling stations have been set up in the state where polling officers, staff, and security personnel will be women.<\/p>\n
Congress has fielded former PCC President Kuldeep Singh Rathore, a loyalist of former Union minister Anand Sharma. Rathore is also close to Vidya Stokes. The BJP has fielded Ajay Shyam, a local.<\/p>\n
Theog is considered a prestigious seat owing to its location close to the state capital Shimla, which poses a curveball for both leading candidates in the state, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress party. Sitting MLA Rakesh Singha is from the CPI(M), a party with negligible electoral presence across the state but with a consistent presence in college and university union elections, considered by many as the \u2018nursery league\u2019 to the \u2018real\u2019 thing.<\/p>\n
Both the BJP and Congress<\/a> have fielded first-timers, but they are playing catch-up with the state\u2019s lone Left MLA. Far from being a Left stronghold, though, Theog (Kumarsain before delimitation in 2012) was the pocket borough of former Congress leader and horticulture baroness, the 83-year-old eight-time MLA Vidya Stokes<\/a>, whose family has preserved close ties with Sonia Gandhi<\/a>\u00a0and also has good equations with the CPI(M) leader\u2019s family.<\/p>\n There is a close contest between BJP, and Congress in Theog.\u00a0 Will Himachal Pradesh continue the trend by giving another term to the BJP? Or will it go by tradition and vote out the incumbent?<\/p>\n