Congress wins four of six seats in Himachal assembly bypolls

Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) [India], June 4 : In a boost for the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh, the party won four of the six assembly bypolls on Tuesday.
The results are a boost for Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu government, which was facing a threat the following cross-voting by six party MLAs in the Rajya Sabha bypolls. The MLAs, who were disqualified from the assembly, later joined the BJP. The disqualification led to the bypoll on the six seats.
Himachal Pradesh assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on Monday accepted the resignation of three Independent MLAs, who had also voted in favour of the BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections along with rebel Congress MLAs. Congress candidate Abishek Manu Singhvi lost the Rajya Sabha polls, causing an embarrassment to the Congress.
The Congress has 34 MLAs in the assembly and with four of its candidates winning the bypolls, the party's strength now stands at 38 in the 68-member House. With three vacancies, the effective strength of the assembly is 65 and majority mark is 33.
In the 2022 assembly polls, Congress had won 40 seats while the BJP got 25.
BJP candidate Sudhir Sharma secured 28,066 votes in Dharamshala assembly constituency and defeated his nearest rival Devender Singh Jaggi of Congress who got 22,540 votes.
Independent candidate Rakesh Chaudhary got 10,770 while Satish Kumar got 422.
Congress candidate from Lahaul-Spiti Anuradha Rana secured 9,414 votes and defeated her nearest rival independent candidate Ram Lal Markanda who got 7,454 votes. BJP candidate Ravi Thakur got 3049 votes.
Captain Ranjit Singh Rana, Congress candidate from Sujanpur, secured 29,529 votes and defeated his nearest rival BJP's Rajender Singh Rana who got 27,089 votes. Nationalist Congress Party's Ravinder Singh Dogra got 334 votes. Independent candidates, Anil Rana got 134 votes, Sher Singh 71, and Rajesh Kumar got 46 votes.
Congress candidate from Kutlehar, Vivek Sharma, secured 35,728 votes and defeated his nearest rival BJP's Devender Kumar Bhutto who got 30,841 votes.
Independent candidates Chanchal Singh got 290 and Rajiv Sharma got 228 votes respectively.
In Gagret, Congress candidate Rakesh Kalia secured 35,768 votes and defeated his nearest rival BJP's Chaitanya Sharma who got 27,281 votes. Independent candidates, Amit Vashisht, Ashok Sonkhala, and Manohar Lal Sharma got 570, 323 and 288 votes respectively.
BJP's Inder Dutt Lakhanpal from Barsar got 33,086 votes and defeated his nearest rival Subhash Chand of Congress who got 30,961 votes. Independent candidate Vishal Kumar got 452.
Voting for the six assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh was held in the seventh and final phase on June 1.