The politicians in Himachal Pradesh are relaxing, only with bated breath till the Assembly poll results are out on 18 December, one month and nine days after the state went to elections on 9 November.

The politically aware and pro-active hill folks are discussing poll probabilities, often debating it out on streets, offices, coffee houses, shops and just everywhere, the politicians sound uneasy as they try to keep themselves busy with personal chores and some introspection.The bureaucrats, although happy in this state of suspended animation in Himachal Pradesh with not much work to do, are utilizing the time to explore ‘safe posting” in the next government, especially as HP is witness to large scale shuffling at all levels, every time the power changes.

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“There is lot of political tagging of officers in Himachal Pradesh of late and our own colleagues do it. We need to clarify the issue of loyalty for better relationship with probable bosses,” confided a high up.

Himachal went to polls with 60 out of 68 sitting MLAs throwing their hats in the ring again. The state has seen Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alternate over last 32 years, in the absence of any third alternative. In 2012 Assembly polls, the Congress had wrested power from BJP, getting 36 seats. The BJP finished with 26 and five seats went to independents. Even this time, on half a dozen seats each, the rebels of two parties have queered the pitch for official candidates.

What makes the battle in Himachal interesting is the flip-flop that the opposition BJP in deciding the poll strategy. The BJP, which started with a clear advantage of HP’s history of change in power every five years and hoped for a sweep in polls, making non-performance’ and ‘corruption’ an issue against the state government, showed some signs of confusion in the midst of poll campaign.

The BJP switched from the experiment of ‘Modi face’ (that it projected in other states) to CM’s face for Himachal just eight days before polls and declared former BJP CM, Prem Kumar Dhumal, 73, as its leader.

The Congress however went to polls with much clarity on leadership issue right from the beginning, declaring six-time CM, Virbhadra Singh, 83, as its leader again in 2017.

Seemingly, as the poll campaign picked, the Congress party, which was initially dubbed as ‘very weak’ in the electoral fight after five years performance, was seen giving tough time to BJP nominees in constituency wise scenario. All this reportedly made BJP retract on its stand of 60 seats to 50 and now, in inner circles, to a minimum of 40-42 seats.

The Congress men, on the other hand, hope that the party may manage to get simple majority for repeat.