Congress wins Mandi Lok Sabha and all 3 Assembly seats in Himachal

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.

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. However, the official announcement of the result is yet to be made.

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

Congress candidate Pratibha Singh defeated her BJP rival Brig Khushal Thakur (retd) in a close contest. 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.

The outcome of the by-polls, being considered a semifinal before the Assembly polls next year, shows there was a strong undercurrent against the BJP on the issue of price rise and unemployment. These two factors tilted the scales in favour of the Congress.

TNS