BJP does it again, bags 4 LS seats

Tribune News Service

Pratibha Chauhan

Shimla, June 4

The BJP today won all four Lok Sabha seats of Mandi, Shimla, Kangra and Hamirpur in the state, riding on the back of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charisma and the Hindu sentiments generated due to the construction of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya. The present victory is a repeat of its performance in the 2014 and 2019 elections.

Anurag Thakur (Hamirpur), Kangana Ranaut (Mandi), Suresh Kashyap (Shimla) and Rajiv Bhardwaj (Kangra) were elected MP. Anurag won the Hamirpur seat for the fifth consecutive time. The BJP got a lead of 2,143 votes in Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s home constituency Nadaun in Hamirpur was a testament to Modi’s appeal among voters. The BJP led in 61 of the 68 Assembly segments in the state.

The results are a confirmation of the fact that the BJP can win Himachal solely because of Modi’s mass appeal as some BJP candidates did not do well on their own home turfs. BJP candidate from the Shimla (SC) Lok Sabha seat Suresh Kashyap could manage a lead of meagre 542 votes from the Pachhad Assembly segment that he had represented twice. As such, it is believed he won the seat solely due to Modi’s charisma.

LEADER SPEAK

BJP leaders were repeatedly claiming that they would form the government in Himachal on June 4. They should be asked how will they form the government now? — Sukhvinder Sukhu, Chief minister

CM Sukhvinder Sukhu has no moral right to continue in power as the BJP got lead in 61 of the 68 Assembly segments. The CM and 10 ministers could not secure lead in their segments. — Rajeev Bindal, BJP State president

We fought the elections well, the party workers gave their best. We will look into the reasons why we could not win. Probably, people wanted Modi government at the Centre. — Pratibha Singh, Congress state president

The BJP won all four parliamentary seats comfortably but it was not an impressive victory compared to the 2019 elections when its winning margin in all four constituencies was around four lakh votes, including Kangra where it was 4.77 lakh. Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur beat “anti-incumbency” and won the Hamirpur seat for the fifth consecutive time. He secured lead in all 17 Assembly segments falling in the Lok Sabha constituency though Hamirpur is the home segment of the Chief Minister.

POLL SNIPPETS

When even CM couldn’t help

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu campaigned tirelessly for Satpal Raizada, but failed to ensure a lead for him even from his own home constituency, Nadaun. No wonder, Raizada, Congress candidate against Anurag Thakur from the Hamirpur seat, did not get a lead even in one of the 17 Assembly segments. To his credit, though, he reduced Anurag’s victory margin from the 2019 elections by more than half this time.

Look for Vajpayee mask: Vikramaditya to pm

Vikramaditya Singh feels the Lok Sabha election results will force Prime Minister Narendra Modi to dump his ‘my way or the highway’ approach. “Now, the Prime Minister will have to throw away his own mask and put on the mask of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He would hardly speak to allies until now but the talks of making someone Deputy Prime Minister has already started,” he said.

Silver lining for Congress

Following the 4-0 debacle, the state Congress is seeking solace in the reduced victory margin of the BJP as compared to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. As per the Congress, it has increased its vote share from 27.53 per cent in 2019 to 41.67 per cent this time, recording an increase of around 14 per cent. The BJP’s vote share, it says, has dropped from 69.71 per cent in 2019 to 56.44 per cent.

Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Vikramaditya Singh gave a spirited fight to Kangana Ranaut, who won the Mandi seat with the lowest margin of 74,755 votes out of all four seats.

The issue of the Agnipath scheme seems to have dented the BJP’s lead, especially in Hamirpur, where Anurag’s victory margin reduced to 1.82 lakh votes from 3.99 lakh votes in the 2019 elections. The Congress’ rhetoric of the Centre not extending financial aid to Himachal in tackling the rain disaster last year, too, appears to have influenced the voters.

The conflicting results of the simultaneous Lok Sabha elections and the six Assembly byelections have clearly demarcated the preferences of the voters. While the BJP got a lead of 23,853 votes in Sujanpur in the Lok Sabha elections, its candidate Rajinder Rana lost the Assembly bypoll by 2,440 votes.

Similarly, in the Gagret and Kutlehar Assembly segments, the BJP got a lead of 10,944 and 7,819 votes, respectively, in the Hamirpur Lok Sabha poll, but party candidates Chaitnaya Sharma and Davinder Bhutto lost the Assembly bypoll by 8,487 and 4,887 votes, respectively.

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