Campaigning for Himachal Pradesh polls ends

Dec 17, 2007, 13:06 GMT

Shimla, Dec 17 (IANS) The campaigning for the second round of the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections ended Monday with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and a host of other leaders trying to woo the voters till the last minute.

The second and last phase of polling, covering 65 constituencies, takes place Wednesday.

The first phase was held in three tribal seats of Bharmaur, Lahaul & Spiti and Kinnaur Nov 14 - as the high mountains of the tribal belt receive snowfall early.

Counting is on Dec 28.

On the concluding day of the campaign, Manmohan Singh addressed two well-attended rallies in Bilaspur and Palampur and urged people to vote the Congress to power once again and continue the rapid development work, which had been going on for the past five years.

Senior BJP leader L.K. Advani also held a couple of rallies on the last day of the campaigning including one in state capital Shimla, urging people to vote for his party for a clean, efficient and development-oriented government.

But the abrupt resignation of Balwant Singh, chief of the state unit of the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP), was the highlight of the day.

The fledgling BSP was hoping to make a dent into the votes of the Congress and the BJP by contesting all the 68 seats.

'I have resigned as BSP Himachal unit president today due to irregularities committed by state convenor Vijay Singh Mankotia and allotment of assembly tickets,' Balwant Singh said.

Mankotia, a former Congressman, had been projected by the BSP as its chief ministerial candidate.

BSP chief Mayawati has been holding rallies in the state for the past few days in support of her party.

With Balwant Singh's resignation, the Congress and BJP will be relieved, as they were afraid the BSP would cut into their votes.

The state is dominated by only two parties, the Congress and the BJP, which have ruled it in turns since 1990.

While the Congress, the BJP and the BSP have fielded candidates in all seats, the Lok Janshakti Party is contesting 38 seats and Communist Party of India-Marxist six.

According to Chief Electoral Officer Manisha Nanda, there are 4.4 million voters for the 65 seats in the second phase of polling. A total of 324 candidates are in the fray.

The Arki constituency in Solan district has the largest number of candidates at nine.

There will be 5,934 polling stations. Polling staff and material are being airlifted to snowbound areas of Dodra Kwar, Bara Banghal and other places.

© 2007 Indo-Asian News Service