Tough challenge for Congress, BJP in Himachal

SHIMLA: The presence of fringe players in parliamentary elections in Himachal Pradesh is going spoil winning chances of key parties like Congress and BJP. The four parliamentary seats of Hamirpur, Mandi, Shimla and Kangra have candidates from AAP, CPM, SP and BSP, besides arch rivals - Congress and BJP. Though individually these smaller parties have not made much difference during past election due to their low polling percentage but together, they have usurped over 4 to 5% of total votes polled in the parliamentary elections.

Many feel that fringe players have so far failed to make any impact in the parliamentary elections as smaller or regional parties could not get strong candidates compared to Congress and BJP. But this time, situation s different as AAP is contesting on all four seats and has pitted strong candidates in Hamirpur and Kangra seats, sources said.

As AAP candidate Rajan Sushant had won the previous parliamentary election from Kangra seat on BJP ticket, this time he is expected to dent the BJP vote bank. With strong presence of soldier and ex-servicemen votes in Hamirpur, candidature of Kamal Kanta Batra, mother of Kargil martyr Captain Vikram Batra is going to dent vote banks of Congress and BJP, sources said.

For four parliamentary seats of Shimla, Mandi, Kangra and Hamirpur, 38 candidates are in the fray for parliamengary election after the last date of withdrawing names ended on Wednesday. Maximum 12 candidates are in Kangra seat, Hamirpur seat has 10 candidates, Mandi seat has nine candidates and Shimla seat has seven candidates.

Himachal Pradesh has over 46.74 lakh voters of which female voters constitute 48.87% while 12.57% voters are in the age group of 18 to 25 years. The socio-economic factors and historical antecedents though had resulted in the emergence of two-party system in Himachal Pradesh since 1967 but now, strong presence of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on two seats of Kangra and Hamirpur has posed tough challenge to competitors.

In 2004 parliamentary elections, BJP had achieved the 44.24% share of total votes polled while Congress had got 51.89% share and together, these parties had 96.13% of total votes polled in the state while the remaining was shared by smaller parties like BSP, JD(S) and SP besides independent candidates. In 2009 parliamentary elections, while BJP got 49.58% share of of total votes polled, Congress got 45.61%. And their combined total share of 95.19% was less than their vote share of 2004.

BSP in 2004 had contested on all four seats and had got 1.74% share of total votes polled while in 2009 while contesting again on all four seats, it got 1.59%. After BSP, independent candidates have emerged as biggest vote grabbers. In 2004, nine independent candidates had contested election and had got 1.66% of total votes while in 2009 elections, nine independent candidates contested to secure 1.49% of total votes polled.