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. The Indian National Congress won a majority of seats as well as the popular vote, and Virbhadra Singh was reappointed as the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh for his fourth term.
Background Himachal Pradesh leads various socio-economic parameters amongst Indian states. Himachal Pradesh has a low female fertility rate (1.9 children per woman) due to which the population of the state is likely to decline in the coming decades. Almost 90% of Himachal Pradesh is well equipped with electricity. The state has a high sex ratio of 999 females per thousand males. It ranks fifth in the literacy rate which is 83.78%, higher than the national rate. It ranks fourth in life expectancy at 67 years, higher than the national rate of 65.4 years.
The legislative assembly has 68 seats, 42 of which were won by the BJP in the previous election.11th Legislative Assembly Partywise Members List .
Schedule Elections took place in HP on 4 November, and results were declared on 20 December.
Parties and alliances
PartyFlagSymbolLeaderContesting SeatsBharatiya Janata PartyPrem Kumar Dhumal68
PartyFlagSymbolLeaderContesting SeatsIndian National CongressVirbhadra Singh68
Others Party flag Symbol Leader Contesting Seats Himachal Lokhit Party Maheshwar Singh 33
Campaign The BJP attempted to seek another term for CM Prem Kumar Dhumal led the campaign. The Congress suffered a massive setback after its star campaigner in HP, ex-minister Virbhadra Singh, was indicted for corruption and scams and was forced to be dismissed from the Union cabinet.
Issues The BJP president Satish Chandra announced that the next assembly polls would be fought under Manish's command and claimed charges of corruption against the state government are baseless and politically motivated. BJP general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP from HP, J. P. Nadda, and co-in-charge of the party affairs in HP, Shyam Jaju, have said, "All is well with the Dhumal government and the charges of corruption leveled against the government have no substance and are found to be baseless". The HP state government's performance had been rated very high compared to several other states and Dhumal enjoyed a high approval rating as well as is much admired by the people of the state for having delivered good governance and inclusive growth.
Senior BJP leader and Lok Sabha MP from HP, Shanta Kumar, considered to be a critic of Dhumal, had indicated that he would continue to work for the party with dedication always, and would campaign for the victory of the party in the coming assembly polls. He has gone on record to mention that no BJP leader has any role in controversial land deals and that there is no proof of corruption by any government functionary.
Some BJP dissidents who were dissatisfied with Dhumal's functioning and the nonchalance of the BJP high command to their request to enquire into Dhumal's corruption, or were finding themselves squeezed out of power had formed the Himachal Lokhit Party (HLP) party. However, senior BJP leaders had strongly mentioned that HLP dissidents had no "genuine grouse" and left the party for "extraneous" personal reasons. They said that the rebels have been leveling allegations of corruption against the state government with no substantive evidence. BJP leaders have expressed concern about the feelings of all those who are in the party and are working to remove their misgivings. BJP had started "Mission Repeat 2012" in which they got sufficient information about the functioning of the party and the government and found that the people were generally happy and satisfied. Himachal Pradesh 2016 panchayat and Zilla Parishad election results are to be announced on 7 January 2016 for 10 districts of the state for the ward members election and for president election( electing the president for the ward members).
Election Constituencies ConstituencynumberNameReserved for(SC/ST/None) DistrictElectors(2012)Lok Sabhaconstituency1Churah SCChamba59,909Kangra2Bharmour STChamba62,584Mandi3Chamba NoneChamba66,983Kangra4Dalhousie NoneChamba58,803Kangra5Bhattiyat NoneChamba63,719Kangra6Nurpur NoneKangra73,605Kangra7Indora SCKangra73,046Kangra8Fatehpur NoneKangra71,362Kangra9Jawali NoneKangra80,230Kangra10Dehra NoneKangra69,138Hamirpur11Jaswan-Pragpur NoneKangra66,693Hamirpur12Jawalamukhi NoneKangra63,906Kangra13Jaisinghpur SCKangra71,973Himachal14Sullah NoneKangra87,091Kangra15Nagrota NoneKangra73,578Kangra16Kangra NoneKangra66,763Kangra17Shahpur NoneKangra71,430Kangra18Dharamshala NoneKangra62,727Kangra19Palampur NoneKangra62,593Kangra20Baijnath SCKangra73,168Kangra21Lahaul and Spiti STLahaul and Spiti22,077Mandi22Manali NoneKullu59,876Mandi23Kullu NoneKullu72,473Mandi24Banjar NoneKullu60,076Mandi25Anni SCKullu70,338Mandi26Karsog SCMandi60,000Mandi27Sundernagar NoneMandi66,482Mandi28Nachan SCMandi69,782Mandi29Seraj NoneMandi67,549Mandi30Darang NoneMandi71,977Mandi31Jogindernagar NoneMandi83,449Mandi32Dharampur NoneMandi67,430Mandi33Mandi NoneMandi63,727Mandi34Balh SCMandi64,741Mandi35Sarkaghat NoneMandi75,777Mandi36Bhoranj SCHamirpur70,601Hamirpur37Sujanpur NoneHamirpur64,208Hamirpur38Hamirpur NoneHamirpur65,202Hamirpur39Barsar NoneHamirpur74,950Hamirpur40Nadaun NoneHamirpur79,759Hamirpur41Chintpurni SCUna70,998Hamirpur42Gagret NoneUna68,803Hamirpur43Haroli NoneUna70,192Hamirpur44Una NoneUna69,527Hamirpur45Kutlehar NoneUna71,008Hamirpur46Jhanduta SCBilaspur65,435Hamirpur47Ghumarwin NoneBilaspur73,614Hamirpur48Bilaspur NoneBilaspur70,587Hamirpur49Sri Naina DevijiNoneBilaspur60,521Hamirpur50Arki NoneSolan75,692Shimla51Nalagarh NoneSolan73,888Shimla52Doon NoneSolan52,466Shimla53Solan SCSolan70,764Shimla54Kasauli SCSolan56,296Shimla55Pachhad SCSirmour61,605Shimla56Nahan NoneSirmour65,821Shimla57Sri Renukaji SCSirmour57,058Shimla58Paonta Sahib NoneSirmour63,743Shimla59Shillai NoneSirmour56,307Shimla60Chopal NoneShimla64,056Shimla61Theog NoneShimla72,997Shimla62Kasumpti NoneShimla56,991Shimla63Shimla NoneShimla48,263Shimla64Shimla Rural NoneShimla66,858Shimla65Jubbal-Kotkhai NoneShimla61,657Shimla66Rampur SCShimla65,088Shimla67Rohru SCShimla63,603Shimla68Kinnaur STKinnaur50,076Mandi
Results
The results were declared on 20 December 2012. Congress defeated BJP and won an outright majority by winning 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 the 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.
!colspan=8| |- !colspan=2| Party !Seatscontested !Seatswon !Seatchange !Voteshare !Swing |- | ||68||36|| 13 || || |- | ||68||26|| 16 || || |- |bgcolor=#0000D1| |Himachal Lokhit Party||33||1|| || || |- | ||68||5|| || || |- !colspan=2|Total!!68!!68!!-!! !! |- !colspan=7|Turnout: 74.62 per cent |- |colspan=8 | Source: Election Commission of India
Results by District DistrictTotal SeatsINCBJPOTH Chamba 5 23 0Kangra1510 3 2 Lahaul and Spiti11 0 0 Kullu42 1 1 Mandi105 5 0 Hamirpur5 13 1 Una53 2 0 Bilaspur42 2 0 Solan5 23 0 Sirmaur513 1 Shimla86 1 1 Kinnaur 11 0 0 Total 68 36266
Results by Constituency