Only two of 10 Himachal ministers win

Shimla, December 8

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has won the Seraj Assembly seat by a record margin of over 38,000 votes but only two his 10 Cabinet colleagues have emerged victorious.

Besides Thakur, Industries Minister Bikram Singh won the Jaswan-Pragpur seat in Kangra district and Power Minister Sukh Ram Chaudhary won the Paonta Sahib seat in Sirmaur district. Irrigation and Public Health Minister Mahender Singh had declined to contest the elections and the BJP gave ticket to his son Rajat Thakur from Dharampur in Mandi but he also lost.

The Chief Minister has broken the earlier record of highest victory margin held by Virbhadra Singh and Prem Kumar Dhumal. Both leaders had won elections as Chief Ministers by over 26,000 votes each.

In the 2017 Assembly elections also, the performance of ministers in the Virbhadra Singh government was not good. However, Virbhadra Singh, Mukesh Agnihotri, Dhani Ram Shandil, Sujan Singh Pathania and Anil Sharma had won. Six ministers of Virbhadra government had lost the elections last time as compared to eight BJP ministers this time.

The Industries Minister won the Jaswan-Pragpur seat by a margin of 1,789 votes while Power Minister Sukh Ram won the Paonta Sahib seat by a comfortable margin of 8,596 votes. Vidhan Sabha Speaker Vipin Parmar, too, won the Sullah seat by a margin of 6,802 votes despite the BJP not doing well in Kangra district. Deputy Speaker Hans Raj also emerged victorious from the reserved Churah constituency in Chamba district.

The BJP had shifted Urban Development Minister Suresh Bhardwaj from his traditional Shimla (Urban) seat to Kasumpti and Forest Minister Rakesh Pathania from Nurpur to Fatehpur at the last minute. Both Bhardwaj and Pathania lost the elections by a margin of 8,655 and 7,354 votes, respectively.