Himachal Pradesh Assembly Election 2017: BJP sees 10 percent jump in vote share since 2012 polls

New Delhi: The BJP which romped to power in Himachal Pradesh by trouncing the Congress saw a jump of about 10 percent in its vote share as compared to the the last Assembly polls in the state in 2012.On the other hand, the Congress despite polling just one percent votes less than what it got in 2012, was sent out of power this time.The BJP bagged 48.8 percent of the total votes, securing 18,46,432 votes to return to power after winning 44 seats, against the 38.47 percent votes it had polled in 2012 when it won only 26 seats by polling 13,00,756 votes in its favour.[caption id="attachment_4264651" align="alignleft" width="380"]

Representational image. PTI[/caption]The Congress won 21 seats in the 68-member Assembly after polling 15,77,450 votes, which is 41.7 percent of total votes cast this time.The Congress had in 2012 polled 14,47,319 votes, which was 42.81 percent of total votes cast, to secure power from the BJP in the last Assembly polls.Meanwhile, many other top leaders in the state lost their seats by very narrow margins this time around.BJP's chief ministerial face for the Himachal Pradesh polls, Prem Kumar Dhumal, was defeated from the Sujanpur Assembly seat.The former chief minister lost to his Congress rival Rajinder Singh Rana by 1,919 votes, according to the Election Commission. Dhumal got 23,369 votes against 25,288 votes polled by Rana.Baldev Sharma of BJP lost to Congress' Inder Dutt Lakhanpal from Barsar Assembly seat by a margin of only 439 votes, while Congress secretary in-charge of Punjab Asha Kumari won her Dalhousie seat from DS Thakur of BJP by merely 556 votes.In Kasauli, Rajiv Saizal of BJP won the seat by a margin of only 442 votes against Vinod Sultanpuri of the Congress. He won the seat from Sultanpuri last time in 2012 by a narrower margin of only 24 votes.Jagat Singh Negi won the Kinnaur seat against BJP's Tejwant Singh Negi by a margin of only 120 votes.Himachal Congress' Cabinet Minister GS Bali lost his Nagrota seat to Arun Kumar of BJP by a narrow margin of only 1,000 votes.Dhani Ram Shandil won the Solan seat from BJP's Rajesh Kashyap by a slender margin of only 671 votes.Taking a dig at the BJP, Congress' communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala said, "Is is not clear whether the BJP Parliamentary Board under a conspiracy defeated him by sending him to Sujanpur so that a person of choice could be imposed in the state.""It is not a good sign at least in the Dev bhoomi of Himachal Pradesh," the Congress leader said."While Modi praised himself, he rejected the leadership of Vijay Rupani and Prem Kumar Dhumal. What cooperative federalism?" he alleged.