New Delhi: More than 55 lakh voters will have the opportunity to vote in the election to the Himachal Pradesh assembly on Saturday in which 413 candidates, including 68 each of arch-rivals Congress and BJP, would be vying for the honours.In the 2017 polls, the BJP won the elections and formed the government after winning 44 seats in the 68-member House. The Congress had finished with 21 seats, while independent candidates got two seats and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) one.Overall, while 505 candidates had filed their nomination, 92 had later withdrawn, leaving 413 in the field. As for the eligible voters, 1.86 lakh are first-time voters and 1.22 lakh are older than 80 years of age. Of these, 1,184 voters are centenarians.The Election Commission (EC) has set up 7,881 polling stations. The state has been witnessing a high turnout over the past few elections. In the 2017 assembly elections, it saw a record 74.61% voter turnout. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections too 72.42% of the electorate exercised its right to franchise.This time too, regular appeals are being issued to voters to come out in large numbers and the EC has also adopted a ‘No Voter to be Left Behind’ policy.Congress has played its cards wellThe BJP is attempting to break the trend of the incumbent party being voted out since 1985. It has given its campaign the name ‘Mission Repeat’. While it is hoping that the Modi factor and its “double-engine government” plank will work and people will vote it to power yet again, the Congress feels it has everything to pose a major challenge to the saffron party. Its slogan is “Aa rahi hai Congress” (The Congress is coming) will prove true.Though six-time Congress chief minister Virbhadra Singh passed away last year, the party has continued with his legacy. It has gone into the polls with his widow, Pratibha Singh, who is also MP from Mandi, being the state unit president. The Congress has also given their son Vikramaditya Singh the party ticket from the Shimla (Rural) constituency.Overall, the Congress has been astute with its ticket distribution. It has repeated all its winning MLAs and this is one of the reasons why it is facing rebellion in only about seven of the seats.Still, the Congress is facing rebellion from two of its former ministers. In Pachhad, its former minister and seven-term MLA Gangu Ram Musafir filed his nomination as an independent candidate after the party gave the ticket to a former BJP leader, Dyal Puri. Incidentally, the party took the decision to drop Musafir as he had lost his last three assembly elections from the constituency. The BJP has fielded its sitting MLA Reena Kashyap who defeated Musafir in the 2019 by-election by 2,742 votes.Another former Congress minister who has rebelled this time is Kuldeep Kumar in Chintpurni. Kumar, who has been in active politics for nearly 30 years and had contested on the Congress ticket six times, was denied the ticket by the party this time. The Congress gave the ticket to its youth leader Sudershan Singh Bablu.Congress MP from Mandi Pratibha Singh. Photo: Twitter/ JenabChandelBJP facing rebellion in a score of seatsOn the other hand, the BJP has changed many of its candidates and is facing rebellion in around a score of seats. The fact that it reportedly took a call from the highest offices in the party to its former Rajya Sabha MP Kirpal Parmar, who had filed his nomination as an independent candidate from Fatehpur, to withdraw from the race, showed the level of intervention it has taken for the party to keep its flock together.In fact, Parmar was one of the six party leaders who were earlier expelled by the BJP for six years for anti-party activities after they filed their nominations as independent candidates. The others were former Kinnaur MLA Tejwant Negi, former Nalagarh MLA K.L. Thakur, former Indora legislator Manohar Dhiman, sitting Aani MLA Kishori Lal and party leader from Kullu Ram Singh.But the BJP may find it tough to keep the anger of the rejected candidates in check. In fact, among those who were denied tickets was former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal. He wanted to contest from Sujanpur, despite having lost there in 2017. This defeat had cost him the CM’s post, which went to Jairam Thakur.Dhumal’s son and Union minister Anurag Thakur in fact cried during a rally while explaining his father’s pain at being denied a ticket. The minister’s father-in-law Gulab Singh was also denied a ticket from Jogindernagar.In the case of the BJP, the party is facing the biggest rebellion in Kullu Sadar, where it gave the ticket to a retired teacher, Narottam Thakur. In protest, its former MP Maheshwar Singh filed his nomination as an independent candidate. The Congress has again given its ticket from Kullu Sadar to its sitting MLA Sunder Singh Thakur, who had defeated Maheshwar Singh in the 2017 polls.Among the contests to look out for is the one in Seraj, where CM Jairam Thakur is taking on Chet Ram of the Congress.The BJP has given tickets to all its ministers barring Mahender Singh Thakur, who opted out in favour of his son, Rajat Thakur. The latter was given the ticket from Dharampur.Also Read: Family Pride, Rebel Candidates: How 10 Seats in Mandi District Could Impact Himachal PollsBJP put all its might into the campaignAlmost all senior BJP leaders campaigned in the state. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the state several times and also held a virtual rally when he could not reach the state due to inclement weather. Apart from him, BJP national president J.P. Nadda and Union minister Anurag Thakur, who both hail from the state, have been regularly holding meetings.Home minister Amit Shah and defence minister Rajnath Singh also addressed a large number of meetings for the party. Among other things, the party had promised to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the state.The BJP has campaigned around the twin plan of offering development and ensuring security. However, pushing the party’s ideological agenda in the state was UP CM Yogi Adityanath who repeatedly raised issues like security, the possibility of mafia on the run from UP entering the state, construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya and reading down of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir to seek votes.Congress raised pertinent issues around unemployment, corruptionThe Congress campaign in the state largely centred around the inability of the BJP to deliver on its promises, the high level of inflation, the growing unemployment and corruption. Realising that there was a great deal of anger among the nearly 4.5 lakh serving and retired government servants in the state on the issue of the BJP revoking the Old Pension Scheme, the Congress also promised a return to it. It also raised the issue of hardships faced by apple growers who have a significant presence in 18 of the constituencies.Another major issue in the state has been the shift to the Agnipath military recruitment scheme, as a large number of people in the Kangra and Hamirpur districts join the armed forces. The party raised the issue since it realises that the youth are opposed to the idea of the scheme making it incumbent upon three-fourths of recruits to leave the force on completion of four years of service.AAP campaign slowed after initial surgeA key feature of the campaigning was the sudden decision of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to focus more on Gujarat than Himachal Pradesh, despite the hill state going to the polls early. Though AAP was the first party to announce its four candidates on September 20 and followed up by announcing candidates for the remaining 64 seats as well, its senior leaders largely stayed away after the initial visits.This sent out a clear message that the contest would be another direct one between the Congress and BJP. But the presence of AAP candidates in almost all seats could still possibly impact the outcome of the polls – in the 2017 elections, the margin of difference in half of the seats was less than 5,000 votes.Arvind Kejriwal. Photo: Twitter/@AamAadmiPartyHistory of close contests adds to the uncertaintyIn fact, despite most of the opinion polls giving the saffron party an edge in the elections, it remains close due to the very nature of tough fights between the candidates of the two main parties.In 2017, the BJP polled 48.79% of the votes and bagged 44 seats; the Congress got 41.68 of the votes but got only 21 seats. This shows what kind of difference a little shift in votes can make in the outcome. And the shift can come on account of the rebellion of candidates, anger of cadre, anger against the government or candidate or even a shift of votes to candidates of a new party. The scene on polling day is similar to what it was in Uttarakhand earlier this year. It remains to be seen if the result too would appear somewhat similar.