Sukhu secures govt, Cong wins four seats in Himachal bypolls

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) clean sweep of the four Himachal Pradesh Lok Sabha seats notwithstanding, the ruling Congress in the Himalayan state found four reasons to cheer on Tuesday after it managed to win four of the six assembly seats in the hotly contested bypolls.

The Congress won Sujanpur, Gagret, Kutlehar and Lahaul and Spiti assembly seats, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won from Dharamshala and Barsar. The victory of four assembly seats took the Congress’s strength to 38 members in the 68-strong House, and ensured there is no immediate threat to the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led government, the only Congress-led government in north India.

The effective strength of the assembly came down to 65 on Tuesday after Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathahnia accepted the resignation of three independent legislators.

In the Sujanpur assembly by-election, Ranjit Singh of the Congress defeated party turncoat Rajinder Rana, who was contesting on a BJP ticket, by a margin of 2,440 votes. In the Lahaul and Spiti bypoll, Congress’s Anuradha Rana defeated independent candidate Ram Lal Markanda by 1,960 votes.

In Gagret bypoll, BJP rebel Rakesh Kalia who contested on a Congress ticket defeated Congress rebel Chetanya Sharma by 8,487 votes, while in Kutlehar, Congress’s Vivek Sharma defeated BJP candidate Davinder Bhutto, one of the six Congress rebels who were disqualified for violating the party whip, by 5,356 votes.

For the BJP, Sudhir Sharma and Inder Dutt Lakhanpal won the assembly bypoll from Dharamshala and Barsar constituencies, respectively.

The bypolls were necessitated following the rebellion by six Congress legislators, who had voted for BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan in the February 27 Rajya Sabha elections. After their disqualification, they joined the BJP, which fielded them in the bypolls.