Shimla, Dec 4: The ruling BJP wrested the Renuka (reserve) Assembly seat from the Congress but suffered defeat in its hands in its stronghold Nalagarh in Himachal Pradesh.
Hridaya Ram of BJP defeated Vinay Kumar of Congress by 3,526 votes. Ram polled 20,804 votes against 17,278 votes polled by his rival while In Nalagarh, Lakhvinder Singh Rana of Congress defeated BJP's Gurnam Kaur by 1598 votes.
Rana polled 28,797 votes against 27,199 votes polled by his lone rival Gurnam Kaur in a straight contest.
Both the BJP and Congress were banking on sympathy votes.
The Congress had fielded Vinay Kumar, son of Prem Singh who had won the seats six times, from Renuka while the BJP had given ticket to Gurnam Kaur, widow of former MLA, Hari Narayan Singh from Nalagarh but neither any sympathy wave nor dynasty worked in the favour of respective candidates.
The Congress had won the Renuka seat by over 3200 votes in the last assembly elections in 2007 but BJP got a lead of 3885 in this segment in the Lok Sabha elections.
Barring 1977 and 1990 when Janta Party and Janta Dal won the Renuka seat, it was held by Congress in all the elections.
The BJP won the seat for the first time in the electoral history of Himachal.
The BJP had won the Nalagarh Seat thrice in a row in 1998, 2003 and 2007.
The seat fell vacant following death of BJP MLA Hari Narain Singh but the party failed to retain the seat in its stronghold.
