It’s a day of mixed feelings for BJP in Himachal Pradesh. On one hand, the BJP is all set to wrest power from the Congress in the hill state Himachal Pradesh, and on the other hand, its CM candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal has lost electoral battle from Sujanpur seat. Prem Kumar Dhumal was defeated by Congress’s Rajinder Rana in Sujanpur. According to latest data available, following are the trends/results on the important seats of the hill state:-
-Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh was leading from Arki while his son Vikramaditya Singh won from Shimla(Rural). Out of eight ministers in the fray, three have lost while three others are trailing. Two ministers are leading.
-Senior-most minister Kaul Singh lost the polls from Drang and while his daughter Champa Thakur suffered defeat at the hands of BJP’s Anil Sharma from Mandi.
-State BJP chief Satpal Singh Satti is trailing from Una while HPCC candidate Sukhvinder Singh Sukkhu is maintaining lead from Nadaun.
-BJP candidate Suresh Bharadwaj retained the prestigious Shimla seat while Anirudh Singh of Congress retained Kusumpti seat.
-Congress candidate Harshvardhan won from Shillai, wresting the seat from Baldev Singh Tomar of BJP while Govind Thakur of BJP scored the third successive victory from Manali.
-However, senior BJP leader Maheshwar Singh failed to retain his Kullu seat.
Himachal Pradesh Elections
Main rivals BJP and Congress contested all 68 seats at stake. The hill state witnessed a record 75.28 per cent turnout. The Congress and the BJP had 36 and 26 seats respectively in the outgoing House.
Himachal Pradesh has a tradition of change in government after every elections and going by the trend, this time it appears to be the turn of the BJP which is upbeat after the exit polls predicted a victory for the saffron party.
The BJP ousted the Congress in 1990 and the Congress avenged defeat in 1993. The BJP formed the government with the help of Himachal Vikas Congress in 1998 and the Congress was back in power in 2003. The BJP made a comeback in 2007.
