The Chamba Assembly Constituency has Indira Kapoor of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Niraj Nayyar from the Indian National Congress (INC) and Shashi Kant of the Aam Admi Party (AAP). The district headquarter will see a three-way contest for this year’s Himachal Pradesh Assembly Elections.
Elections in Himachal Pradesh for many years have been a two-party contest between the BJP and the Congress. Since 1985, the state has been ruled alternately by the Congress and the BJP. The BJP would have to break that cycle to win, while AAP would test its fortunes.
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The BJP had won 44 of Himachal Pradesh’s 68 assembly constituencies last time and the Congress had won 21. The CPM had won one seat. A party needs to win at least 35 seats for a majority in the state.
In 2017, Pawan Nayyar of the Bharatiya Janata Party won the seat by defeating his closest rival Niraj Nayyar of the Indian National Congress with a margin of 1,879 votes. Pawan previously ran unsuccessfully in the 2012 elections on a Congress ticket. The other candidates are Paras Ram Bhardwaj from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Bal Krishan Chauhan and Dr D K Soni as independents.
Chamba is one of the 68 assembly constituencies in Himachal Pradesh. Chamba falls under the Chamba district and Kangra Lok Sabha Constituency along with 16 Assembly segments, namely, Churah, Dalhousie, Bhattiyat, Nurpur, Indora, Fatehpur, Jawali, Jwalamukhi, Jaisinghpur, Sullah, Nagrota, Kangra, Shahpur, Dharamshala, Palampur and Baijnath, Sihunta. Chamba has more than 86,000 eligible voters.
In 2012, B.K Chauhan from BJP defeated Pawan Nayyar of INC by 1,934 votes. Noordeen Noorani of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Rattan Chand of the Communist Party of India (CPI), Rumesh Kumar of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and independent candidates C.L Thakur, Anita Thakur and Raj Singh had also contested the HP Assembly Elections in 2012.
Himachal Pradesh votes in a single round on November 12. Results will be announced on December 8. Elections to the Gujarat assembly are also expected to be held in December this year.
Quick facts about the Chamba Assembly seat
Name of the assembly constituency, district: Chamba, Chamba district
Polling date: November 12, 2022
Sitting MLA, party: Pawan Nayyar, BJP
Key candidates, party in 2022: Indira Kapoor (BJP), Niraj Nayyar (INC), Shashi Kant (AAP)
Winning candidate, party in 2017: Pawan Nayyar, BJP
Runner-up name, party 2017: Niraj Nayyar, INC
Winning margin in 2017: 1,879
Top 3 candidates 2017: Pawan Nayyar (BJP), Niraj Nayyar (INC), Paras Ram Bhardwaj (BSP)
Top 3 candidates 2012: B.K Chauhan (BJP), Pawan Nayyar (INC), Raj Singh (Independent)
Lok Sabha constituency: Kangra
