Himachal: Congress exudes confidence despite surveys predicting a clean sweep for BJP

With the majority of the exit poll surveys predicting a win for the Bharatiya Janata Party, the ruling Congress in the hill state is agog due to good voter turnout --71% for the four Lok Sabha seats--Shimla, Kangra, Mandi and Hamirpur. Both the ruling Congress and the BJP are dissecting the voting trends and strategizing their next moves.

Post poll surveys predicted a clean sweep for the BJP, winning all four seats and repeating its 2019 performance. The ruling party may not win a single seat, as predicted by the exit polls. The state had recorded an all-time high turnout of 80.1% in the 2019 elections when the BJP created history and retained all four seats with invincible margins. The party’s vote share increased to 70% in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from 42.18% in 2014. BJP’s Kangra candidate Kishan Kapoor had defeated his rival, Congress’s Pawan Kajal (now a BJP MLA) with a margin of 4,77,623.

Anurag Thakur had triumphed over Congress Ram Lal Thakur with 3,99,572 votes. BJP’s Ramswarrop Sharma had won the Mandi seat by 4,05,459 votes by defeating Ashray Sharma of Congress. Suresh Kashyap had registered victory from the Shimla seat with 3,27,515 defeating Dhani Ram Shandil of Congress.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the need of the country, the country is moving forward under his leadership. BJP will win all four Lok Sabha and six by-elections. The mood of the public is with Modi,” said BJP state party chief Rajeev Bindal, adding that the GDP growth figures in the fourth quarter of the financial year 2023-24 reflect the strong momentum in the economy, which is going to accelerate even further.

Chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu who camped in the lower regions of the state returned to the capital and sought feedback from the party workers and the observers. He exuberated confidence that the party candidates would win. “The by-polls in Himachal were certainly important from the view that Himachal has witnessed different kinds of politics. For the first time, money power was used to topple the government. I am confident that people of the state have taught them a lesson,” he said. Sukhu had unleashed a campaign against the six Congress turncoats-- “Dhanbal harega, janbal jitega”,( money power will be defeated and people’s power will win).

The rebellion in the party which almost brought the Congress government on the brink on February 27 had dented the chief minister’s image.

State congress president and Mandi Lok Sabha member Pratibha Singh said the Lok Sabha election results will be contrary to the exit polls. The BJP did not talk about the issues in this election. It remained silent on the issues like inflation and unemployment. An attempt has been made to weaken democracy with money power but the people have completely rejected it. Pratibha Singh said that Congress has fought these elections in the state with great strength and the people of the state have voted heavily in Congress favour.