Himachal polls: 158 of 338 candidates are crorepatis; 10 facts on Assembly

158 out of 338 candidates are crorepatis; 59 out of 68 are from Congress, 47 out of 68 from BJP

The voting for the Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls began at 8 am on Thursday and would continue till 5 pm. It is between Congress leader and six-time Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Prem Kumar Dhumal for the next head of the state.

 

The main focus of BJP's campaign was corruption, while the Congress hit out at the Opposition regarding the issues of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and demonetisation.

While voting is still underway, Business Standard brings you 10 key findings about the Himachal Assembly:

• Of the 338 candidates in the fray, only 19 are women.

• 158 (47 per cent) of the total candidates are crorepatis. The average assets per candidate is Rs 4.07 crore.

• Analysis of crorepati candidates party-wise: 59 of the 68 from the Congress, 47 of the 68 from the BJP, 6 out of the 42 from the Bahujan Samaj Party, 3 of the 14 from the CPI(M), 1 of the 3 from the Communist Party of India and 36 of the 112 independents have declared assets worth more than Rs 1 crore.

• The candidates with the highest assets are Balvir Singh Verma of the BJP (over Rs 90 crore), followed by Vikramaditya Singh of the Congress with more than Rs 84 crore.

• There is a direct contest in the Jhanduta (SC) constituency in Bilaspur while Nurpur, Sundernagar, Chintpurni, Doon, Pachhad (SC), Banjar, Ani (SC), Nachan (SC), Renukaji (SC), Jubbal and Kotkhai are set to witness a triangular fight, with the BJP and the Congress as the major players.

• The highest number of candidates — 12 — are in the fray in Dharamsala, followed by 10 in Karsog (SC), nine each in Jaswan Pragpur and Sarkaghat and eight each in Fatehpur and Palampur. 

• Four-way contests are on the cards in 22 constituencies, while five-cornered contests would be witnessed in 14 constituencies. On nine seats, the fight will be among six players; in six other constituencies, seven candidates each are in the fray.

Participation of MLAs

A study by PRS Legislative Research shows the trends in the participation of the MLAs:
 

• Eighty per cent of the bills were passed within three days as the assembly sat for 29 days in one year, a dip from the previous assembly (2008-2012) that sat for 33 days in a year.

 

• Out of the 80 per cent bills passed, 56 per cent were approved on the same day or next day of the bill’s introduction. Only the Himachal Pradesh Aerial Ropeways (Amendment) Bill, 2015, was passed after 91 days of its introduction.

• Around 50 per cent of the bills were related to finance and education. These include bills to establish new universities (28%), bills related to goods and services tax (12%) and bills to sanction budgets (10%).

The Congress and BJP have fielded candidates in all 68 seats, while the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and other Left parties are contesting 16 seats. There are 36 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) from the Congress, 29 MLAs from BJP and five independents in the current assembly.

Voting is being conducted in 68 assembly constituencies of Himachal Pradesh in single phase to choose the next chief minister of the state. A total of 50,25,941 voters are eligible to cast their votes and the polling will take place at 7,525 booths with EVMs and VVPAT.

The counting of votes will take place on December 18.