Himachal Pradesh

Besides, the police seized charas and heroin of Rs 9,29,950. The spokesman said that during the inspection by the Income Tax Department, Rs 16,00,000 cash and gold valued at Rs 1,56,345 was also seized. The Excise Department also seized 2,046.175 litres of illicit liquor, worth Rs 12,05,605.

The Prime Minister was gifted the attire on his recent visit to Himachal Pradesh and he had promised her to wear it during a special occasion. When the Prime Minister inaugurated the Kedarnath ropeway, entire temple premises reverberated with Lord Shiva's devotional songs. Uttarakhand Governor Lt General (Retd) Gurmeet Singh, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, state Cabinet Minister Prem Chandra Agarwal, among others, were present on the occasion.

Earlier, the BJP released the first list of 62 out of 68 candidates with many surprise seat changes of senior legislators, and 11 lawmakers not getting the party's renomination.Seats of sitting ministers -- Suresh Bhardwaj and Rakesh Pathania -- have been changed.

This poll card is clearly aimed to counter Prime Minister Modi-who calls himself "Himachal Ka beta" because he has worked in the state for a long time as party general secretary between 1996-2000. This enables him to strike a close bond with the state and its people as he still knows many people by their first names.

This small hill state has not seen any incumbent party returning to power since 1985. Since then both archrivals -- the Congress and the BJP -- ruled the state alternatively in eight terms. This time, the saffron party, with anti-incumbency weighing heavy on its governance, seems to be banking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's charisma, instead of flashing its own achievement card.

According to the CVoter survey, conducted for ABP News, respondents, asked irrespective of whichever party you support or vote for, which party or alliance do you think will win the Himachal polls, a total of 51.1 per cent said that the BJP will win the election.

Less than half of that, or about 22 per cent said they are not happy with the BJP government and want to change it. Similarly, 36.6 per cent of the voters rate the performance of the state government as good while 34.6 per cent rate it as poor. Then again, results of the exclusive CVoter survey for ABP News show that while 37.6 per cent of respondents rate the performance of Chief Minister Jairam Thakur as good, as many as 33.7 per cent rated his performance as poor.

With the announcement of the poll schedule, the Model Code of Conduct for guidance of political parties and candidates will come into force. Teams of the Commission recently visited the two states to take stock of poll preparedness. The previous assembly elections were held in December 2017. After the election, BJP emerged victorious and had formed the state government, with Vijay Rupani taking over as the chief minister.

He will also lay foundation stones for two hydropower projects of nearly Rs 700 crore and launch Rs 3,000 crore Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)-III well ahead of the Assembly polls in the BJP-ruled state. Chief Minister Jairam Thakur, who is leading the party's election campaign that has gained momentum, said this is the ninth visit of the Prime Minister which reflects his bonding with the state and its people.

Accompanying BJP President J.P. Nadda, who belongs to Bilaspur, Union minister Anurag Thakur, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, among others, will later reach Luhnu ground in Bilaspur, some 130 km from the state capital, to inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of multiple development projects and also address a public function.