Congress hopeful of forming govt in Himachal, says 'will achieve magic number'
Dec 08, 2022
New Delhi [India], December 8 : The Congress party is hopeful of winning its "magic number" but is waiting till the final results of the Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh are announced.
The State Working President of Himachal Pradesh Congress, Yadupati Thakur said: "We will easily achieve the magic number. As evident from the trends initially it was BJP leading but eventually, we started to move ahead." 
He further said that the youth here have voted for Congress as they have put forth their issues and exuded confidence in youth being with the party.
"We will form govt here by winning 40 plus seats," he added.
Thakur was accompanied by Mahinder Chauhan who asserted that they are hopeful of winning at least 42 to 45 seats for forming the government in Himachal Pradesh.
Meanwhile, Congress leader SS Sukhu also showed confidence in forming the government with a full majority in Himachal Pradesh.
"BJP considered itself strong in Himachal Pradesh, PM Modi and Amit Shah visited the State several times, here today Congress is going to form the government with a full majority," SS Sukhu said.
Congress candidate Harish Janartha on Thursday won from Shimla constituency in Himachal Pradesh with a margin of 3037 votes. While Congress is leading on 39 seats out of 68 and BJP is leading on 18.
Janartha won with a total count of 15803 votes while the candidate of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sanjay Sood trailed behind with 12766 votes.
As per the latest trends, the Shimla seat is the first to be won by Congress in Himachal Pradesh, however, so far, the BJP has won 7 seats including Mandi, Nurpur, Paonta Sahib, and Sundernagar, by 1.25 pm.
As per the EC till 2:10 pm Congress is leading on 35 seats and won 5 seats so far while the BJP has won 7 seats and leading on 18 seats.
The Working chairman of the legal department of the Pradesh Congress Committee Pranay Pratap Singh talked about the enthusiasm here and said that this would be the "victory of karyakarta, 10 promises, OPS, employees and mediapersons".
However, Pranay Pratap Singh refused to comment on the ECI trends and reiterated that the result should be awaited.
"Once the results are out and we cross the mark of 42, then see what happens. I am very positive and hopeful that you will see a very good leader in the state," he said.
Meanwhile, advocate Virendra Kumar Verma of the Congress lauded Vir Bhadra Singh for the all-around development of the state and said that the Congress was getting full support from the people. "It will form the government here with full majority," he said.
As per the latest trends, one seat has been won by the Independent candidate.
The battle of governance between Congress and the BJP continues to be tightening in a neck-to-neck contest.
It is pertinent to mention that till 01.56 pm, the BJP won five seats and continued to lead in 20 constituencies, while Congress is ahead of all in 36 seats.
The counting of votes for Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh began at 8 am on Thursday.
In Himachal, there are 68 counting halls in 59 locations across the state.
The elections for 68 assembly seats in the state were held on November 12 and around 75.6 per cent polling percentage was recorded.
The hill state witnessed an intense campaign with BJP trying to return to power for a second consecutive term and Congress backing on its '10 guarantees' that the party listed out in its manifesto to take them home. The emergence of the Aam Aadmi Party as the third major political force in the state has intensified the electoral battle.
Besides these three, parties like the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India (CPI) and Rashtriya Devbhumi Party (RDP) are also in the fray.
Both BJP and Congress have claimed victory in the state which has had a tradition of changing governments for the past several years. If BJP wins then it will beat the anti-incumbency and change the trend of the alternate government in the state.
Notably, in the 2017 Assembly elections, the BJP formed the government by winning 44 seats while Congress secured 21 seats.
