Congress wins all the four seats
Dharamshala/Shimla/Mandi: On losing three assembly seats and the all-important Mandi parliamentary seat to Congress, chief minister Jai Ram Thakur acknowledged defeat on Twitter, “I accept the public opinion. Arki, Jubbal-Kotkhai and Fatehpur assembly by-elections results have been declared today including the Mandi Lok Sabha. I accept the decision of the people, congratulations to the winning candidates of the Congress. Certainly, the state BJP will make every effort to win the assembly elections to be held in the year 2022.”
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
The elections for the Mandi parliamentary seat was a closely contested one between Pratibha Singh, the Congress candidate who is a former MP and wife of the late chief minister Virbhadra Singh and Brigadier Khushal Thakur (Retd), a Kargil war veteran who was instrumental in recapturing Tiger Hill. Pratibha Singh defeated her nearest rival BJP’s retired Brigadier Khushal Thakur by a margin of 8766 votes.
Mandi seat had fallen vacant on the death of. Ramswarup Sharma, a BJP MP.
The election for the Jubbal-Kotkhai in Shimla district was a keenly contested on where Chetan Bragta, a BJP rebel candidate who contested as an independent lost by over 6 thousand votes. Rohit Thakur, the Congress candidate who is also a former MLA won the seat. Ironically Neelam, the BJP candidate lost her security deposit in the election.
By-poll to Jubbal Kothkhai were held because of the death of Narender Bragra, a BJP MLA.
In the Fatepur assembly seat in Kangra district, it was Bhavani Pathania of the Congress who was declared winner. He won by 5789 votes defeating Baldev Thakur of BJP. The seat had become vacant on the death of Sujjan Singh Pathania.
Sanjay Awasthi of the Congress won the Arki assembly constituency by defeating Ratan Pal Singh of BJP by 3277 votes. The seat had fallen vacant on the death of former chief minister Virbhadra Singh who was representing the seat.
Arvind Sharma is an award winning bi-lingual journalist with more than 20 years of experience.
He has worked with Divya Himachal, Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhasker, Vir Partap, Ajit and PTI.
In 2010, he was conferred the Himachal Kesri journalism award. He reports on the Tibetan Government in Exile, politics, sports, tourism and other topics. He lives in Dharamshala.
