Himachal Assembly bypolls: Congress wins 4 of 6 seats, BJP 2
NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday won the bypolls to four Assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh, while the BJP won two seats, according to the Election Commission. Four Congress turncoats, who recently joined the BJP in Himachal Pradesh, lost the by-elections from their respective Assembly segments, the Election Commission figures showed.
With victory in four Assembly segments, the strength of Congress MLAs has gone up to 38 in the house with an effective strength of 65. The result ensures that there is no immediate threat to the Congress government in the state for now. The Congress won Sujanpur, Gagret, Kutlehar and Lahaul and Spiti Assembly seats, while the BJP won from Dharamshala and Barsar, according to the EC. BJP’s Rajinder Rana was defeated by his old rival Ranjit Singh of Congress by a margin of 2,440 votes in the Sujanpur Assembly by-election. Rana is a Congress turncoat who had defeated former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal in the 2017 Assembly polls and was the main target of Sukhu in the by-elections. While Rana had recently switched to the BJP, Singh, a retired captain, joined the Congress after Rana was given a BJP ticket for the Sujanpur bypoll. Singh polled 29,529 votes against Rana’s 27,089 votes, according to EC’s website. BJP candidate from the Barsar Assembly seat Inder Dutt Lakhanpal won by a margin of 2,125 votes, defeating the Congress’ Subash Chand.The BJP’s Sudhir Sharma won the Assembly bypolls from Dharamshala, defeating his nearest rival and Congress candidate Devinder Singh Jaggi by a margin of 5,526 votes.
With strength of Congress MLAs going up to 38 in the house, there is no immediate threat to the Congress government in the state for now