Polls to 4 Himachal Pradesh Municipal Corporations canvassing ends, over to voters now

The canvassing for the elections to the 4 of the 5 municipal firms in Himachal Pradesh — being thought of a forerunner of the Assembly election subsequent yr — got here to an finish Monday night. The civic our bodies of Dharamshala, Mandi, Solan and Palampur are going to polls on Wednesday.
According to the state election fee, a complete of 279 candidates are in fray from 64 wards within the 4 cities. The highest variety of candidates are within the age group of 31-40 years (37 per cent), adopted by 41-50 years (24 per cent), and 21-30 years (20 per cent). Only three per cent candidates are aged above 60 years.
Women comprise 55 per cent of the contesting candidates, and round two-thirds of the candidates signify varied reserved classes. A 3rd of the candidates are matriculates, 23 per cent are graduates, 22 per cent have accomplished senior secondary training, 16 per cent are put up graduates and 6.5 per cent have research under matriculation.
Economic status-wise, round 72 per cent of the candidates fall within the above poverty line (APL) class, 4.3 per cent are under the poverty line (BPL), 9 per cent are non-tax payers and 14.3 per cent are tax payers.

Contrary to many of the earlier municipal elections in Himachal, the polls this time are being held on occasion symbols. The Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), the ruling occasion within the state, and important opposition occasion Indian National Congress (INC), are the principle contenders and have fielded candidates in many of the wards. Among others, the Aam Admi Party has fielded candidates in 43 out of 64 wards, whereas the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has fielded just one candidate in a ward in Mandi.
Himachal solely had two MCs of Shimla and Dharamshala till the state cabinet determined in October final yr to improve the municipal councils of Palampur, Mandi and Solan into municipal firms by together with adjoining areas.
The Palampur and Solan Assembly constituencies are represented by the Congress whereas BJP represents Mandi and Dharamshala. The civic elections are being seen as forerunner of subsequent yr’s Assembly elections, and leaders from each the events have been campaigning onerous in latest days.

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For Congress, the campaigning was led by state president Kuldeep Singh Rathore and Leader of Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri together with different occasion leaders equivalent to Sudhir Sharma, Kaul Singh Thakur, GS Bali, and Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu. Party veteran Virbhadra Singh was scheduled to marketing campaign in Solan on Monday however couldn’t go there on account of well being causes.
For BJP, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur addressed a variety of rallies within the 4 cities. Rakesh Pathania, Bikram Singh, Mahender Singh and Rajeev Bindal, too addresed a number of public conferences.

Polling on Wednesday will likely be held from 8am to 4pm, and the counting of votes will likely be taken up instantly after the shut of the ballot on the municipal headquarters. Along with the 4 MCs, elections are additionally being concurrently held in six newly-created nagar panchayats within the state, specifically Chirgaon, Nerwa, Ani, Nirmand, Amb and Kandaghat.