Himachal bypoll breather for Chief Minister Sukhu as party hoppers suffer defeat

Pratibha Chauhan

Shimla, July 13

A little over a month after it’s dismal performance in Lok Sabha polls, in which it drew a blank, the Congress has won two out of three assembly bypolls in Himachal Pradesh, the results for which were declared on Saturday.

The party won Dehra and Nalagarh while BJP won from Hamirpur. These constituencies had to go to polls following the resignation of three Independent MLA’s who had joined the BJP to contest on the saffron ticket.

Despite the rebellion by six Congress legislators by cross voting in the Rajya Sabha election on February 27, the bypoll results have consolidated the position of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu. Interestingly, the tally of Congress which had won 40 seats in the 2022 Vidhan Sabha polls is back to 40. The Congress had also won four of the six assembly bypolls held with the Lok Sabha elections.

Congress candidate Harpreet Singh Bawa won from Nalagarh by a margin of over 6,000 and Ashsih Sharma of the BJP from Hamirpur by 1571 votes.

The victory of Kamlesh Thakur, wife of CM Sukhu by a margin of over 9399 votes from Dehra has enabled the Congress to wrest the Dehra seat after almost two decades.

The move of the Congress high command to field CM’s wife from Dehra against the two time Independent MLA has paid off. Sukhu has been able to send a strong signal to even his detractors within the party that he can steer the party out of crisis thrust by ‘Operation Lotus’ that was played out in the Rajya Sabha polls on February 27, 2024.

The stakes were very high for chief Sukhu as ensuring victory of his wife was imperative for him not just to send a strong signal to the BJP but also to detractors within his own party. Hoshyar Singh had won the 2022 polls by a margin of 3877 votes.

The three Independent legislators Hoshyar Singh (Dehra), KL Thakur (Nalagarh) and Ashish Sharma (Hamirpur) had resigned and on March 22 and joined the BJP the very next day to contest on the saffron ticket. Interestingly, despite the BJP getting massive leads in all the three assembly segments in the recently held Lok Sabha polls, two of the three BJP candidates have now lost the by-polls reflecting the public sentiment against their move to resign to seek re-election on BJP ticket.

Infact, the three MLA’s even sat on a dharna outside the Vidhan Sabha to press for the acceptance of their resignation by the Speaker Kuldeep Pathania. They were keen that bypolls in their constituencies are held with the Lok Sabha and. However, that did not happen as the Speaker accepted their resignation after the polls.

CM’s wife Kamlesh made her electoral debut against Hoshyar Singh from Dehra which is her maternal home, much against the wishes of the CM and she herself. Hoshyar Singh has won two consecutive elections as an Independent in 2017 and 2022.

The defeat of the two former Independents MLA’s is a signal that the public has rejected them for party hopping and forcing a by-poll by going against the public mandate given in 2022 assembly polls.

KL Thakur a former BJP MLA had won as a rebel from Nalagarh in 2022 by a margin of 13,264 votes. Ashish Sharma too had won as an Independent from Hamirpur by a margin of 12,899 votes. The Congress will now have a strength of 40 in the 68 member assembly while the BJP’s tally has gone up to 28 MLA’s in the 68 member house.