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Congress bags 1 Lok Sabha, 3 assembly seats in BJP-ruled Himachal Pradesh
Shimla/Dharamshala: The opposition Congress swept the by-elections in the Mandi Lok Sabha constituency besides the Arki, Fatehpur and Jubbal-Kotkhai assembly segments by defeating the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday
Shimla/Dharamshala: The opposition Congress swept the by-elections in the Mandi Lok Sabha constituency besides the Arki, Fatehpur and Jubbal-Kotkhai assembly segments by defeating the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday.
The BJP was the incumbent in the parliamentary constituency and one of the assembly constituencies.
Celebrations broke out in the Congress camp even before the Election Commission formally announced the results in the evening.
Pratibha Singh, the Congress candidate and wife of former chief minister the late Virbhadra Singh won from Mandi parliamentary constituency by 7,490 votes. A former two-term member of Parliament from Mandi, Singh polled 3,69,565 votes, while her BJP rival Brigadier Khushal Chand Thakur (retd) received 3,62,075 votes.
None of the above (NOTA) played spoilsport for the BJP, with 12,626 votes.
In the 2019 general election, the BJP won the Mandi seat by more than 4.5 lakh votes. Its voteshare declined by 20.61 percentage points in two years. The party polled 48.14% votes as compared to 68.75% in the 2019 elections. The Congress vote share rose by 23.46 percentage points. In the last elections, it polled just 25.64% votes, while this time it got 49.14% of votes.
The Mandi seat is significant as it is the home turf of chief minister Jai Ram Thakur for whom this election was a litmus test of his and his party’s popularity as the state heads into an election year. Assembly elections in Himachal are scheduled for late 2022.
The win also establishes that Singh will carry forward the political legacy of Virbhadra Singh, a six-time chief minister who passed away in July. Their son, Vikramaditya Singh, actively campaigned for her in the by-election.
Infighting costs BJP dear in Fatehpur
In Fatehpur assembly segment, Bhawani Singh Pathania of the Congress won by 5,789 votes. Pathania polled 24,449 votes against the BJP’s Baldev Thakur.
Former member of Parliament Rajan Sushant, who contested as an independent candidate, polled 12,927 votes, playing spoilsport for his former party, the BJP.
The ruling party’s campaign was marred by infighting in Fatehpur, a stronghold of the Congress for more than a decade. The by-election was necessitated after sitting legislator Sujan Singh Pathania passed away due to a prolonged illness in February. His son, Bhawani, quit his job in a banking and insurance company to take the plunge into politics.
Congress snatches Jubbal-Kotkhai from BJP
The Congress snatched the Jubbal-Kotkhai seat from the BJP. Congress nominee and a former two-term legislator, Rohit Thakur, defeated BJP rebel turned independent candidate Chetan Bragta by 6,293 votes. The BJP suffered a humiliating drubbing as its candidate, Neelam Saraik, couldn’t even save her security deposit.
The death of BJP MLA and former minister Narinder Singh Bragta, Chetan Bragta’s father, necessitated the by-election.
Thakur, the grandson of former chief minister Ram Lal Thakur, polled 29,955 votes, while Bragta got 23,662 votes. Saraik managed to get only 2,644 votes.
The Congress also retained the Arki assembly seat that fell vacant after former CM Virbhadra Singh’s death in July. Congress candidate Sanjay Awasthi polled 30,798 votes against the 27,579 votes his BJP rival, Rattan Pal Singh, got. In Arki too, infighting harmed the BJP’s prospects, party leaders said.
Chief Minister Jairam Thakur accepted the defeat and said the party will deliberate on the reasons for the loss. “We would take necessary steps to overcome shortcoming,” he said, admitting that there was sympathy for former CM Virbhadra Singh in the tribal regions and that the Congress took advantage of it.
Himachal Congress president Kuldeep Singh Rathore said the election results are a referendum against the ruling BJP Government and sought the CM’s resignation.
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