Assembly bypolls election results 2024: Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu's wife Kamlesh Thakur won from Dehra seat by a margin of over 9,000 votes. The counting of votes for the by-elections in all three assembly constituencies of Himachal began at 8:00 am today (July 13).
Dehra Assembly constituency was carved out after a delimitation exercise in 2012. Senior BJP leader and former minister Ravi Inder Singh was elected from the seat in 2012. Hoshiyar Singh won the seat as an Independent in 2017 and 2022.
Kamlesh Thakur after winning Dehra seat
On winning the Dehra assembly by-polls, CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu's wife Kamlesh Thakur says, "The party leaders and workers worked day and night for this day... I will give all credit to the people who stood by the party throughout. I am proud of the people of Dehra."
Congress candidate Kamlesh Thakur was in the lead with 9,399 votes.
Hamirpur seat results
BJP's Ashish Sharma won the bypolls to the Hamirpur assembly seat in Himachal Pradesh by defeating his nearest rival and Congress candidate Pushpender Verma by a margin of 1,571 votes on Saturday.
Of the three seats, where bypolls were held the in the state on Wednesday, the BJP only won this constituency. Dehra and Nalagarh were won by the Congress, the ruling party in Himachal Pradesh.
While Sharma polled 27,041 votes, Verma secured 25,470 votes. However, Sharma's margin has shrunk significantly as compared to the 2022 assembly elections. As an Independent candidate, Sharma then had defeated Verma by 12,899 votes.
Hamirpur is the home district of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and the parliament constituency of BJP leader Anurag Thakur.
Nalagarh assembly seat results
Congress' Hardeep Singh Bawa defeated his nearest rival and BJP candidate K L Thakur in the bypoll to the Nalagarh assembly seat in Himachal Pradesh by 8,990 votes, officials said on Saturday. Bawa, a five-time president of the Indian National Trade Union Congress' Himachal Pradesh unit, polled 34,608 votes.
Voting percentage in Himachal Pradesh
The Nalagarh assembly constituency had recorded the highest polling at 79.04 per cent, followed by Hamirpur (67.72 per cent) and Dehra (65.42 per cent). The overall voting percentage of the three bypolls was 71 per cent, according to the data of the state election department. The seats fell vacant after the three Independent legislators Singh (Dehra), Sharma (Hamirpur) and KL Thakur (Nalagarh), who had voted in favour of the BJP in the Rajya Sabha polls held on February 27, resigned from the state assembly on March 22 and joined the party the next day.
Their resignations, however, were accepted by the assembly speaker on June 3, and the seats were declared vacant, necessitating the by-elections. The BJP fielded all the three former MLAs from their respective seats.
The Congress fielded Kamlesh Thakur from Dehra, repeated its candidate Verma from Hamirpur and gave ticket to five-time Indian National Trade Union Congress president, Himachal Pradesh unit, Bawa, from Nalagarh. Though the bypolls will not make much difference in the 68-member House as the Congress has a majority with 38 MLAs. The BJP has 27 members.
The main opposition BJP, which has won all four seats in the just concluded parliamentary elections, has fielded K.L. Thakur from Nalagarh and Ashish Sharma from Hamirpur, where they are pitted against Congress' Hardeep Bawa and Pushpendra Verma, respectively. Both KL Thakur and Ashish Sharma won the seats as Independent candidates in 2022 before joining the BJP earlier this year. The duo, along with Hoshiyar Singh, resigned from the Assembly in March and joined the BJP.
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