The BJP retained all four parliamentary constituencies — Shimla, Kangra, Hamirpur, and Mandi — in Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday as it swept the Lok Sabha polls in the hill State. However, the ruling Congress won four of the six seats in the Assembly bypolls, providing much-needed stability to the State government, which in recent months saw political turmoil.
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The Lok Sabha results are seen as a relief for the BJP as Himachal Pradesh is the home State of its national president J.P. Nadda, and his prestige was at stake. In 2014 and 2019, the BJP won all four Lok Sabha seats in the State. However, losing the four seats to the ruling Congress in the Assembly bypolls has hit the BJP, clearly indicating that people have reposed their faith in the incumbent Congress government.
The ruling Congress won by-polls for four Assembly seats — Sujanpur, Lahaul-Spiti, Gagret, and Kutlehar. The BJP won two Assembly seats — Dharamshala and Barsar.
As per the results announced by the Election Commission on June 4, the BJP’s actor-turned-politician Kangana Ranaut defeated Congress’ Vikramaditya Singh, son of former Chief Minister, the late Virbhadra Singh, from Mandi. She secured 5,37,022 votes and won by a margin of 74,755 votes. Union Minister Anurag Thakur of the BJP defeated the Congress’s Satpal Raizada in Hamirpur by securing 6,07,068 votes. His winning margin was 1,82,357 votes.
Former Union Minister and Congress leader Anand Sharma faced defeat at the hands of the BJP’s Rajeev Bhardwaj from Kangra. Mr. Bhardwaj got 6,32,793 votes and his winning margin was 2,51,895 votes. In Shimla, the BJP’s Suresh Kashyap won by securing 5,19,748 votes. He defeated Vinod Sultanpuri of the Congress by a margin of 91,451 votes.
Success for Sukhu
While the BJP’s narrative around nationalism by giving a “strong and resilient” government to the country appeared to have helped the party to regain its seats in parliamentary polls, the Congress campaign led by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, who sought votes on the “performance” of his government and targeted the BJP for its alleged attempt to topple the democratically elected Congress government in the State, besides Centre’s indifferent attitude towards Himachal Pradesh during the last year’s ‘natural calamity’, seem to have resonated with the voters, giving the Congress a clear edge in the Assembly bypolls. The byelections were necessitated following the disqualification of the Congress MLAs from the Assembly for defying a party whip in February this year.
