The Assembly by-poll results in six constituencies have come as a relief to the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh. Four out of six turncoat MLAs, who switched over to BJP from Congress and contested the by-poll on the BJP ticket, have lost while only two of them have been able to retain their seats. This result is a morale booster for the Congress amidst defeat in all four Lok Sabha seats because it means that the State government can continue till its term ends in 2028.
The Congress currently has 34 MLAs and the BJP has 25 in the Assembly in the 68-member House. The house now has a strength of 59 after the resignation of three independent MLAs. After Tuesday’s results, the strength of Congress will rise to 38 and that of BJP to 27.
The BJP tried to topple the Congress government during the Rajya Sabha elections when six of the Congress MLAs voted in favour of the BJP candidate. Their subsequent disqualification by the Speaker necessitated the by-poll.
Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) president Pratibha Singh on Tuesday congratulated the Congress leaders, who won the by-elections and said their victory has further strengthened the Congress government in the State. The results of the by-polls has proved that the people of the State are strongly with the Congress government, she added.
The Assembly constituencies where by-polls were held are Sujanpur, Dharamshala, Lahaul and Spiti, Barsar, Gagret and Kutlehar. BJP candidate from Kutlehar Assembly seat, Davinder Bhutto, one of the six Congress rebels, lost to his Congress rival Vivek Sharma by a margin of 5,356 votes. Another BJP candidate, Ravi Thakur, who contested from Lahaul and Spiti stood third with 3,049 votes; while Congress candidate Anuradha Rana, the first woman to have contested elections from Lahaul and Spiti in 52 years, won the poll.
In Sujanpur, another BJP candidate, Rajinder Rana, lost to Ranjit Singh of Congress by a margin of 2,440 votes while BJP’s Chaitanya Sharma lost by 8,487 votes in Gagret assembly seat to his Congress rival Rakesh Kalia.