The Dalhousie Assembly Constituency has D.S Thakur of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Asha Kumari from the Indian National Congress (INC) and Manish Sareen of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in a three-way contest for this year’s Himachal Pradesh Assembly Elections.
Elections in Himachal Pradesh have largely 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 hopes to break the cycle, while Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP hopes to make a mark in the state’s political landscape.
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The BJP had won 44 of Himachal’s 68 assembly constituencies last time and the Congress had won 21. The CPI (M) had won one seat. A party needs to win 35 seats to form the government in Himachal Pradesh.
In 2017, Asha Kumari of the Indian National Congress won the seat by defeating her closest rival D.S Thakur of the Bharatiya Janata Party with a margin of 556 votes. The other candidates were Virender Sharma from Rashtriya Azad Manch (RADM) and Dhian Singh of the Communist Party of India (CPI).
Dalhousie is one of the 68 assembly constituencies in Himachal Pradesh. Dalhousie falls under the Chamba district and Kangra Lok Sabha Constituency along with 16 Assembly segments, namely, Churah, Chamba, Bhattiyat, Nurpur, Indora, Fatehpur, Jawali, Jwalamukhi, Jaisinghpur, Sullah, Nagrota, Kangra, Shahpur, Dharamshala, Palampur and Baijnath, Sihunta. Dalhousie has more than 73,000 eligible voters.
In 2012, Asha Kumari from INC defeated Renu Chadha of the BJP by 7,365 votes. Paras Ram of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Tilak Raj of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and independent candidate Shalender Thakur 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 Dalhousie Assembly seat
Name of the assembly constituency, district: Dalhousie, Chamba district
Polling date: November 12, 2022
Sitting MLA, party: Asha Kumari, INC
Key candidates, party in 2022: D.S Thakur (BJP), Asha Kumari (INC), Manish Sareen (AAP)
Winning candidate, party in 2017: Asha Kumari, INC
Runner-up name, party 2017: D.S Thakur, BJP
Winning margin in 2017: 556
Top 3 candidates 2017: D.S Thakur (BJP), Asha Kumari (INC), Dhian Singh (CPI)
Top 3 candidates 2012: Asha Kumari (INC), Renu (BJP), Tilak Raj (CPI)
Lok Sabha constituency: Kangra
