Himachal stays saffron as BJP scores hat-trick
The BJP completed a hat-trick in Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh’s four Lok Sabha seats — Kangra, Shimla, Mandi and Hamirpur.
BJP candidate from Kangra, Rajeev Bhardwaj, defeated his nearest Congress rival and four-time MP Anand Sharma by a margin of 2,51,895 votes. Bhardwaj got 6,32,793 votes, while the Congress candidate got 3,80,898 votes.
Likewise, four-time MP and Union Minister Anurag Thakur won BJP’s bastion Hamirpur with a margin of 182,357 votes from his nearest rival of the Congress, Satpal Raizada. Anurag got 607,068 votes, while Raizada got 42,4711 votes.
In the Mandi Parliamentary seat, actress-turned-politician Kangna Ranaut got 537,022 votes, while Congress candidate Vikramaditya Singh polled 462,267 votes. Kangna won by 74,755 votes.
In Shimla (reserved), Suresh Kashyap of the BJP defeated his nearest rival Vinod Sultanpuri of the Congress by a margin of 91,451 votes. Kashyap polled 519,748 votes, while Sultanpuri got 428,297 votes.
The election was also a litmus test for the Congress-led Sukhu government’s popularity, given that Congress boasts of MLAs in 13 of 17 Assembly segments falling under the Shimla Lok Sabha seat. Shimla’s parliamentary representation also extends prominently into the Sukhu cabinet, with key ministers and officials hailing from the region.
At least five cabinet ministers — industry minister Harshwardhan Chauhan, health minister Dhani Ram Shandil, education minister Rohit Thakur, public works minister Vikramaditya Singh and rural development minister Anirudh Singh, deputy speaker Vinay Kumar, chief parliamentary secretaries Sanjay Awasthi, Homan Lal Brakta and Ram Kumar — hailed from the region.
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