Himachal Pradesh Bypolls: Major Setback For BJP, Congress Wins Mandi Lok Sabha And All 3 Assembly Seats

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.

Mandi: In a major setback to the BJP, the Congress on Tuesday won the Mandi Lok Sabha bypoll and all three Assembly constituencies of Arki, Fatehpur and Jubbal-Kotkhai. The bypolls were held on October 30.

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.

In the Mandi parliamentary seat, the home turf of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, the Congress defeated the BJP by a slender margin of 8,766 votes.

Congress candidates have won in Arki, Jubbal-Kotkhai and Fatehpur Assembly segments though the final results are yet to be announced.

The defeat is a setback to CM Thakur as the BJP had won the Mandi seat by a margin of 3.98 lakh votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The Mandi bypoll was held following the demise of BJP MP Ram Swaroop in February this year.

“I accept the results and congratulate the winners. The BJP fought hard, but the results are not in keeping with our expectations. We will definitely study the lessons learned in these bypolls and learn for the future… for the 2022 election,” Jairam Thakur said.

जनमत को स्वीकार करता हूँ।

आज मण्डी लोकसभा सहित अर्की,जुब्बल-कोटखाई व फतेहपुर विधानसभा उपचुनावों के नतीजे सामने आए है।

मैं जनता के निर्णय को स्वीकार करता हूँ, कॉंग्रेस के विजेता प्रत्याशियों को बधाई।

हम हार पर मंथन करेंगे व आगामी रूपरेखा बनाएंगे,जो कमी रही है उसकी भरपाई करेंगे।

— Jairam Thakur (@jairamthakurbjp) November 2, 2021

Congress candidate Sanjay Awasthy won the Arki assembly seat by 3,277 votes, while in Fatehpur Congress candidate Bhawani Singh Pathania defeated his nearest rival Baldev Thakur of the BJP by 5,652 votes.

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.