Himachal Pradesh has historically had a bipolar political landscape, something that has been reflected time and again in the Assembly elections in the state where the Congress and the BJP have alternately come into power.
With the 2022 polls less than a week away, we take a look at how the constituencies dominated by the SC and ST communities voted in the previous Legislative Assembly elections in 2017, with regard to different political parties.
Himachal has three constituencies reserved for Scheduled Tribes (STs), namely, Bharmour, Kinnaur, Lahaul & Spiti, while 17 constituencies are reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs): Anni, Baijnath, Balh, Bhoranj, Chintpurni, Churah, Indora, Jaisinghpur, Jhanduta, Karsog, Kasauli, Nachan, Pachhad, Rampur, Rohru, Solan, and Sri Renukaji.
As the graph above indicates, most of the aforementioned 20 reserved constituencies were dominated by the BJP, with the Congress managing wins in only Sri Renukaji, Solan, Rohru, Rampur, and Kinnaur.
While other parties, such as the BSP and the CPI(M), managed to get some votes in a few of the 20 reserved constituencies, their vote shares were not enough to pose serious competition to the BJP and the Congress.
Given the trend of anti-incumbency in the state, the trend may well be the opposite this time. Himachal Pradesh goes to polls on November 12 and the results will be declared on December 8.