Himachal Pradesh Assembly Election Results 2022: Newly-elected Congress MLAs being taken to Jaipur amid ‘POACHING’ fears

Shimla: The Congress party, which has crossed the halfway mark in Himachal Pradesh by taking a big a lead over the incumbent BJP on Thursday, has decided to shift all its newly-elected party legislators to Jaipur fearing “poaching” attempts by the ruling party. According to Congress sources, the main opposition party has already deputed Rajiv Shukla and other central leaders to ensure the safety of the party’s newly-elected legislators. According to initial trends, the Congress party is leading on 38 seats after initial rounds of counting in the hill state. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has also reached her farm house near Shimla where she is expected to meet the state party leaders to discuss the current political situation.   

It crossed the halfway mark and was leading in 38 seats at around 11.45 AM. The ruling BJP was leading in 27 seats, while the Independents were leading in three constituencies.

Independents, all BJP rebels, are Hoshiyar Singh from Dehra, Hiteshwar Singh from Banjar in Kullu and Ashish in Hamirpur Sadar, once the stronghold of two-time Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal.

As Himachal Pradesh has not returned any incumbent government to power in nearly four decades, early trends of ballot count indicated the Congress leading in the 68-member Assembly.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, 57, won from his stronghold Seraj in Mandi district. Congress prominent leaders Mukesh Agnihotri, 60, and Sukhvinder Sukhu, 58, are leading from Haroli and Nadaun seats respectively. As most exit poll surveys have predicted a tight contest between the incumbent BJP and the opposition Congress.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is in the fray for the first time in the Assembly polls, has been missing from the state with its leaders focusing on strengthening its vote bank in Gujarat.

Sensing a neck-and-neck contest between the BJP and the Congress, rebels, who had broken ties with the mainstream parties, have started holding ‘in-door’ parleys with a belief that in politics there is no permanent enemy or friend.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the main Opposition Congress have also begun an exercise to keep its numbers in `order` in case of hung House.  Insiders claim that the leaders of both parties were trying to sink their differences with the party rebels, whose numbers are nearly 20, to improve the party`s prospects. The fear of exodus of lawmakers from Congress was high.