2-1 boost for Himachal CM Sukhvinder Sukhu, wife Kamlesh Thakur takes Dehra by 9K votes

Pratibha Chauhan

Shimla, July 13

Resigning and switching to the BJP proved costly for two Independent MLAs who lost to Congress candidates from their seats on Saturday in the bypolls. While the Congress won the Dehra and Nalagarh seats, the BJP emerged victorious in Hamirpur.

The victory of CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s wife Kamlesh Thakur from Dehra by 9,399 votes has come as a big boost to the Congress, which won the seat for the first time since 2012.

The stakes were high for Sukhu as he wanted to send a strong signal not only to the BJP, but also to his detractors within his own party. Despite the ruling party losing the Hamirpur seat, Sukhu’s allegations of the BJP trying to destabilise a democratically elected government seem to have made an impact. Congress’ Hardeep Singh Bawa defeated BJP’s KL Thakur in Nalagarh by 8,990 votes, while BJP’s Ashish Sharma managed to win the Hamirpur seat by polling 1,571 votes more than Congress’ Pushpinder Verma.

The bypolls were held following the resignation by Independent legislators Hoshiyar Singh (Dehra), KL Thakur (Nalagarh) and Ashish Sharma (Hamirpur) on March 22. All three joined the BJP the very next day.

The rebel factor cost the BJP dear as former minister Ramesh Dhawala who had contested the 2022 Assembly election on the BJP ticket openly aired his grouse against Hoshiyar Singh’s candidature. In Nalagarh too, the presence of a rebel, Harpreet Singh Saini, ensured the party’s defeat.

The result shows the public has rejected two of the three Independent legislators for forcing a bypoll by going against the public mandate. Thakur, a former BJP MLA, had won as a party rebel from Nalagarh by 13,264 votes and Hoshiyar Singh had won the Dehra seat by 3,877 votes for the second consecutive time as an Independent candidate.

The Congress’ strength has now gone up to 40, while the BJP’s tally is 28 in the 68-member House. The number of women in the Assembly, which was one in 2022, has gone up to three with the victory of Anuradha Rana from Lahaul and Spiti earlier and now Kamlesh Thakur. It is also for the first time in the electoral history of the state, a husband and wife — CM Sukhu and Kamlesh Thakur — would be members of the Assembly at the same time.