The 2012 Himachal Assembly election have proved tough for the new outfit like Himachal Lokhit party (HLP) as it could only secure lone seat of its convener Maheshwar Singh. Earlier it was speculated that HLP candidates can play a major to dent the BJP vote bank, but it did not really hold true as the outfit could win only one seat. It is only in two places Anni and Baijnath, HLP candidates ensured the Congress won, where its candidates cut considerable margin of BJP candidates.
Even in terms vote bank, it is barely half a dozen HLP candidates like Nand Lal (8,340 votes) from Anni in Kullu, Udho Ram (7,049) from Baijnath, Naveen Dhiman (6,982), Shyama Sharma (5,240) from Nahan and Chet Ram Negi (2,240) could manage to put some electorate fight, but most of its candidate had a merely a token presence in 29 other constituencies.
Other political parties like CPM, CPI, NCP and TMC failed to open its account in the assembly election as most of the candidates failed miserably to get the favour of electorates. CPM was fighting in three constituencies viz. Shimla, Theog and Kasumpti, but comes third in Shimla and Theog, whereas comes fourth in Kasumpti. NCP and TMC had disastrous show in the election as their candidates tally comes first from the bottom.
There were about 105 independent candidates in the fray and both Congress and the BJP had at least a dozen each formidable rebels queering the pitch for nominees, but they failed to stop Congress from getting absolute majority in the 68 member house.
Out of five independents, three BJP rebels, Pawan Kajal (Kangra), Manohar Dhiman (Indora) and Rajinder Rana (Sujanpur one Congress rebel Karnesh Jung from Paonta Sahib trounced the party’s official nominee, whereas independent Balbir Singh Verma won election from Chopal assembly segment, which was touted as one of the most formidable Congress bastion from past few decades. Verma has also shown interest be an associate member of the Congress.
