Elections in Himachal Pradesh

Elections for the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly in Himachal Pradesh state, India are conducted in accordance with the Constitution of India. The Assembly of Himachal Pradesh creates laws regarding the conduct of local body elections unilaterally while any changes by the state legislature to the conduct of state level elections need to be approved by the Parliament of India. In addition, the state legislature may be dismissed by the Parliament according to Article 356 of the Indian Constitution and President's rule may be imposed.

Himachal Pradesh legislative assembly election, 1952

Summary of results of the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly election, 1952 ^[1]
	Political party	Seats Contested	Won	% of Seats	Votes	Vote %
	Indian National Congress	35	24	66.67	84,819	47.25
	Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party	22	3	8.33	26,371	14.69
	Scheduled Caste Federation	9	1	2.78	10,352	5.77
	Independent	36	8	22.22	47,746	26.6
Total seats		36	Voters	7,13,554	Turnout	1,79,515 (25.16 %)

Source ^[2]

Himachal Pradesh legislative assembly election, 1967

Rank	Party	Seats Contested	Seats won	% votes
1	Indian National Congress	60	34	42.19
2	Independent	60	16	38.10
3	Bharatiya Jana Sangh	33	7	13.87
4	CPI	11	2	2.89
5	Swatantra Party	5	1	1.93
	Total		60

Himachal Pradesh legislative assembly election, 1972

Rank	Party	Seats Contested	Seats won	% votes
1	Indian National Congress	68	53	53.24
2	Bharatiya Jana Sangh	31	5	17.15
3	Lok Raj Party Himachal Pradesh	16	2	20.54
4	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	4	1	1.10
5	Independent	68	7	28.27
	Total		68

Source ^[3]

Himachal Pradesh legislative assembly election, 1977

Rank	Party	Seats Contested	Seats won	% votes
1	Janata Party	68	53	49.01
2	Indian National Congress	56	9	27.32
3	Independent	68	6	21.10
	Total		68

Source ^[4]

Himachal Pradesh legislative assembly election, 1985

Rank	Party	Seats Contested	Seats won	% votes
1	Indian National Congress	68	58	55.86
2	Bharatiya Janata Party	57	7	35.87
3	Independent	68	2	8.28
4	Lok Dal	3	1	1.44
	Total		68

Source: STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTION, 1985 TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF HIMACHAL PRADESH

Himachal Pradesh legislative assembly election, 1990

Rank	Party	Seats Contested	Seats won	% votes
1	Bharatiya Janata Party	51	46	41.78
2	Indian National Congress	66	9	36.54
3	Janata Dal	17	11	10.83
4	Independent	68	1	6.10
5	Communist Party of India	18	1	2.06
	Total		68

Source: STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTION, 1990 TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF HIMACHAL PRADESH

Himachal Pradesh legislative assembly election, 1993

Rank	Party	Seats Contested	Seats won	% votes
1	Indian National Congress	67	52	48.82
2	Bharatiya Janata Party	68	8	36.14
3	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	6	1	0.76
4	Independent	68	7	9.76
	Total		68

Source: STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTION, 1993 TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF HIMACHAL PRADESH

Himachal Pradesh legislative assembly election, 1998

Party	Seats	Votes	%
Indian National Congress	31	1,110,055	43.5%
Bharatiya Janata Party	31	995,482	39.0%
Himachal Vikas Congress	5	245,584	9.6%
Independents and Others	1	200,248	7.8%
Total (Turnout 71.2%)	68	2,551,369	100%
Source: Chief Electoral Officer, Himachal Pradesh

Himachal Pradesh legislative assembly election, 2003

Rank	Party	Seats Contested	Seats won	% votes
1	Indian National Congress	68	43	41
2	Bharatiya Janata Party	68	16	35.38
3	Independent	68	6	12.60
4	Himachal Vikas Congress	49	1	5.87
5	Lok Jan Shakti Party	27	1	1
6	Loktantrik Morcha Himachal Pradesh	14	1	2.17
	Total		68

Source: STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTION, 2003 TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF HIMACHAL PRADESH

Himachal Pradesh legislative assembly election, 2007

Legislative Assembly elections were held in Himachal Pradesh in 2007.

Rank	Party	Seats Contested	Seats won	% votes
1	Bharatiya Janata Party	68	41	43.78
2	Indian National Congress	67	23	38.9
3	Independent	60	3	7.97
4	Bahujan Samaj Party	67	1	7.26
	Total		68

Himachal Pradesh legislative assembly election, 2012

The Himachal Pradesh legislative assembly election, 2012 was held in Himachal Pradesh, India in 2012 after the five-year term of the incumbent state legislature and government expired following the assembly elections of 2007. The election chose 68 MLAs to the Vidhan Sabha.

Summary of the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly election, 2012 result


Party	Seats contested	Seats won	Seat change
Bhartiya Janata Party	68	26	16
Indian National Congress	68	36	13
Independents	68	6
Total	68	68	-
Turnout: 74.62 per cent
Source: Election Commission of India

The results were declared on 20 December 2012. Congress defeated BJP and won outright majority by securing 36 of the 68 seats under the leadership of Virbhadra Singh - thus proving most of the pollsters and exit polls wrong, which had predicted a photo-finish. The BJP lagged far behind with just 26 seats in its kitty whereas its breakaway faction HLP won just 1 seat. The Congress won despite some 'unpopular' decisions made by the Congress-led Central government days before the election as part of its economic reforms, and the victory is likely to boost such reforms by the Centre.

Both Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh had BJP governments and went to polls together. But unlike Gujarat, where the BJP under the leadership of Narendra Modi retained power by winning a massive 115 out of 182 seats, in Himachal Pradesh ,the Prem Kumar Dhumal-led BJP lost due to a huge anti-incumbency wave arising mainly out of corruption and lack of good governance.

Cong veteran leader Virbhadra Singh takes oath for record sixth term as Himachal chief minister at historic Ridge ground in Shimla on 25 December 2012.

References

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