Himachal Pradesh Bypoll Result: Congress Reclaims 4 Of 6 Seats It Lost After Rebel MLAs Defected To BJP

Congress Candidates Captain Ranjit Singh won from Sujanpur Assembly seat and Anuradha Rana won the Lahaul & Spiti seat of Himachal.

According to the latest update from the Election Commission Of India (ECI) website Congress has won four out of six Himachal Pradesh Assembly seats that went into bypolls following diqualification of six rebel MLAs who defied party whip and eventually joined the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP on the other hand has won 2 seats in Himachal Assembly.

Congress candidates Captain Ranjit Singh won from Sujanpur Assembly seat and Anuradha Rana won the Lahaul & Spiti seat of Himachal Pradesh. Rakesh Kalia of Congress won from Garget. 

Congress candidate Vivek Sharma  won the Kutlehar seat in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly. 

BJP candidates Sudhir Sharma and Inder Dutt Lakhanpal won the Dharamshala and Basrsar respectively.

Six assembly seats, including Dharamshala, Lahaul-Spiti, Sujanpur, Barsar, Gagret and Kutlehar went into bypolls alongside the Lok Sabha elections were necessitated after the disqualification of six Congress MLAs for disobeying the party whip.

The MLAs, Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Rajinder Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chaitanya Sharma and Devinder Kumar, had refused to obey the party's direction to be present in the House and vote in favour of the Congress government during the discussion on the State Budget.

The bypolls were carried out after six Congress MLAs were disqualified amid the high voltage media drama that ensued after they cross voted in the Rajya Sabha elections. These six rebel MLAs have contested the seats from BJP. 

On February 27, the six rebel Congress MLAs crossvoted for the BJP’s Harsh Mahajan in the Rajya Sabha elections. Congress party’s candidate, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, was defeated despite the grand old party having a full majority in the 68-member Himachal. After the rebellion by 6 Congress MLAs, the Congress government faced threat as the Opposition BJP called for CM Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu’s resignation.

All six rebel Congress MLAs contested again but on a BJP ticket. The six rebel leaders in the fray are Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Devinder Kumar Bhutto, Chaitanya Sharma, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal and Ravi Thakur. CM Sukhu has alleged that they accepted “crores" for selling their integrity to BJP.