The Shahpur Assembly Constituency has Sarveen Chowdhury of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Kewal Singh Pathania from the Indian National Congress (INC) and Abhishekh Thakur of the Aam Admi Party (AAP) a three-way contest for this year’s Himachal Pradesh Assembly Elections.
For many years, Himachal Pradesh elections have been a two-party battle between the BJP and Congress. The state has been ruled alternatively by Congress and the BJP since 1985. The state has a history of not voting the same party back to power. However, BJP hopes to change that trend while AAP tries to make a mark in HP’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 for a majority to form the government in the state.
In 2017, Sarveen Choudhary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the seat by defeating her closest rival Major Retd. Vijai Singh Mankotia, an independent candidate with a margin of 6,147 votes. Kewal Singh Pathania of the Indian National Congress (INC), Banarsi Dass Dogra of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and independent candidates including Desh Raj Chaudhary and Ramesh Kumar also contested the election.
Former Congress MLA Major (retd) Vijai Singh Mankotia was a claimant of a Congress ticket for the Shahpur constituency. However, after the party’s high command denied his claim, he joined the BJP on October 25, 2022, in the presence of BJP Party President J.P Nadda at Bilaspur.
Mankotia’s supporters are now expected to vote for Sarveen Chaudhary. On social media, Mankotia’s supporters were outraged by his decision to join the BJP. Onkar Thakur, who ran for the BSP ticket in Shahpur in 2017 with Mankotia’s support, is openly campaigning for the Congress candidate.
Mankotia may find it difficult to campaign for Sarveen Chaudhary because he had accused her of corruption in land deals over the last five years. He had even written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting that she be prosecuted. Sarveen had made serious allegations against Mankotia as well.
Shahpur is one of the 68 assembly constituencies in Himachal Pradesh. Shahpur falls under the Kangra district and Kangra Lok Sabha Constituency, along with 16 Assembly segments, namely, Churah, Chamba, Dalhousie, Bhattiyat, Nurpur, Fatehpur, Jawali, Indora, Jwalamukhi, Jaisinghpur, Sullah, Nagrota, Kangra, Dharamshala, Palampur and Baijnath, Sihunta. Shahpur has more than 87,000 eligible voters.
In 2012, Sarveen Choudhary of the BJP defeated Vijai Singh Mankotia of the INC by 3,123 votes. Balbir Singh of Himachal Lokhit Party (HLP), Banarsi Dass Dogra of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Vipan Kumar of Lok Jan Shakti Party (LSP), Kushal Kumar of Samajwadi Party (SP) and independent candidate Nand Lal 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 Shahpur Assembly seat
Name of the assembly constituency, district: Shahpur, Kangra district
Polling date: November 12, 2022
Sitting MLA, party: Sarveen Choudhary, BJP
Key candidates, party in 2022: Kewal Singh Pathania (INC), Sarveen Choudhary (BJP), Abhishekh Thakur (AAP)
Winning candidate, party in 2017: Sarveen Choudhary, BJP
Runner-up name, party 2017: Vijai Singh Mankotia (Independent)
Winning margin in 2017: 6,147
Top 3 candidates 2017: Kewal Singh Pathania (INC), Vijai Singh Mankotia (Independent), Sarveen Choudhary (BJP)
Top 3 candidates 2012: Vijai Singh Mankotia (INC), Nand Lal (Independent), Sarveen Choudhary (BJP)
Lok Sabha constituency: Kangra
