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Amid speculations regarding Congress' choice of chief minister for Himachal Pradesh, party supervisor, in-charge, and observers on Friday met Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, in what was termed as "courtesy call".
Congress wrested power in the hill state on Thursday winning 40 seats in the 68-member assembly riding on an anti-incumbency wave against the BJP. Among those who visited the governor were Congress Himachal Pradesh observers and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and party state in-charge Rajeev Shukla. However, the leaders refuted any political angle to the visit and said that it was just a courtesy call. Finalizing its chief ministerial candidate for Himachal Pradesh appears to be a sticky task for Congress with various aspirants in the fray including Pratibha Singh, widow of former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, former state party chief Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu and CLP leader Mukesh Agnihotri. While Congress won 40 seats , the BJP won 25 seats, Independents three seats and AAP failed to open its account as results were announced on Thursday. In terms of vote share in Himachal, Congress is only marginally ahead of the BJP has got 43.88 per cent of votes compared to 42.99 per cent. Others garnered a 10.4 per cent vote share in the hill state. Himachal Pradesh has a long tradition of alternating governments and Congress was on the right side of anti-incumbency. Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur resigned following the party's defeat in the polls. In the 2017 Assembly elections, the BJP formed the government by winning 44 seats while Congress secured 21 seats. (ANI)
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