The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is most likely to face a huge embarrassment by the end of the day as it lost Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi parliamentary seat to the Congress and is also expected to lose three assembly seats of Fatehpur, Arki, and Jubbai-Kothkai.
Congress candidate Pratibha Singh, who is the wife of the late former six-time Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, on Tuesday won Mandi parliamentary seat against BJP candidate and Kargil war hero Brigadier (retd) Khushal Chand Thakur. This was for the first time that a member of Virbhadra Singh’s family contested an election after his demise due to post-Covid complications.
The Mandi parliamentary seat boasts of the world’s highest polling station at Tshigang, located at a height of 15,256 feet in the tribal district of Lahaul-Spiti. In Mandi, the prestige of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and late Virbhadra Singh’s family was at stake. Mandi being his home district, it was a litmus test for Thakur to ensure the victory of BJP candidate Thakur, who tried his luck for the first time.
Meanwhile, the Congress is leading in three assembly seats of Fatehpur, Arki and Jubbai-Kothkai, according to available trends for the bypolls.
In Jubbal-Kotkhai assembly seat after second round of counting, Rohit Thakur (2,825) of the Congress is leading with 248 votes over his nearest rival Chetan Singh Bragta (2577), a rebel BJP candidate contesting as an independent candidate. BJP candidate Neelam Seraik has so far got only 302 votes.
In Fatehpur, Baldev Thakur of the BJP is leading with a margin of 924 votes over his nearest rival Bhawani Singh Pathania of the Congress.
In Arki, Congress candidate Sanjay is leading with 2,659 votes over BJP’s Rattan Singh Pal (4,808).
The bypolls for Mandi parliamentary and the three assembly seats were held on October 30.
The bypolls were held as the seats fell vacant following the death of sitting lawmakers. The Mandi seat fell vacant after the demise of BJP MP Ram Swaroop Sharma, who was found dead at his official residence in Delhi on March 17. Former state minister and Fatehpur Congress MLA Sujan Singh Pathania, former minister and Jubbal-Kotkhai MLA Narinder Bragta and former chief minister and Arki MLA Virbhadra Singh died in February, June and July, respectively.
With inputs from News18, PTI
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