Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh elections 2027: when they vote and what is at stake

Seven state assemblies are due for election in 2027, not five. Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur vote early in the year. Then, around November and December, it is the turn of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, which elected their current assemblies in December 2022. Their five-year terms run to about the end of 2027.

The two states could hardly be more different. One is the BJP’s most dependable fortress; the other has voted out its ruling party at every election for four decades.

When will Gujarat and Himachal vote?

Probably in November or December 2027. No schedule has been announced, and none is expected until well into the year. In 2022 both states were counted on the same day, December 8, and the Election Commission may again pair them. The President’s five-year term, which began on July 25, 2022, ends in July 2027, so the presidential election will come between the two rounds of assembly polls.

How did Gujarat vote in 2022?

The BJP won 156 of 182 seats, its best result ever. It polled 52.5% of the vote, more than 1.6 crore votes, the highest share since it first contested the state in 1990. The tally broke both the BJP’s own 2002 record of 127 seats and the Congress’s 1985 record of 149, and gave the party a seventh consecutive term.

The Congress collapsed to 17 seats, its vote share falling from about 42% to 27%. The Aam Aadmi Party, campaigning hard in the state, won 5 seats and about 13% of the vote. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel won his Ghatlodia seat in Ahmedabad by more than 1.9 lakh votes.

How did Himachal Pradesh vote in 2022?

The Congress won 40 of 68 seats, and the BJP 25. Independents took the other three, and AAP won 1.10% of the vote and no seats. The margin was far narrower than the seat count suggests: the two parties’ vote shares were about one percentage point apart, and in 15 seats the Congress won by fewer than 2,000 votes. In Bhoranj, its candidate won by 60 votes.

The result kept a pattern alive. Himachal has not re-elected a sitting government since 1985, and the BJP, which had governed from 2017, failed to change that “riwaaj” (custom). Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu became Chief Minister.

What happened in Himachal after 2022?

A rebellion that nearly cost the Congress its government. On February 27, 2024, six Congress MLAs cross-voted for the BJP’s Harsh Mahajan in the Rajya Sabha election. The six were then disqualified for defying the party whip during the budget session. In by-elections held later in 2024 the Congress won six of the nine seats, including Dehra, where Sukhu’s wife Kamlesh Thakur won, and its strength in the assembly returned to 40.

The state’s Congress now runs a “Mission Repeat” campaign under its new state chief Vinay Kumar and the AICC in-charge Rajani Patil. Its critics point to unmet poll promises and the handling of natural disasters; the BJP has recently won three of four municipal corporations in civic polls.

What is at stake in Gujarat?

The BJP’s hold on the Prime Minister’s home state. After 2022 the question in Gujarat is less whether the BJP will win than by how much, and whether the Congress or AAP becomes the main opposition. The BJP has run the state continuously since the 1990s. Analysts describe Gujarat as the party’s safest seat of power and Patel’s administration as its pitch, while noting the Congress’s efforts to rebuild its organisation.

Why do these two elections matter nationally?

Because together they close a year that tests every major party. For the BJP, Gujarat is a stronghold to defend, and Himachal’s record of changing governments gives it a chance to win the state back. For the Congress, Himachal is a state it governs and must hold. For AAP, which won five seats and about 13% of the vote in Gujarat in 2022, the two polls will show whether it can build on that showing.