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The BJP was sall set to wrest power in Himachal Pradesh, winning 19 seats and leading in 25 as counting progressed in the state Assembly elections. However, the state party chief faced a humiliating defeat in his constituency, while BJP Chief Ministerial candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal is trailing with a huge margin.
The ruling Congress managed to win 11 seats and was leading in 10, with its Chief Ministerial candidate and sitting incumbent Virbhadra Singh winning with a handsome margin from Arki. His son Vikramaditya Singh also marked his maiden victory in the assembly with a comfortable margin from Shimla (Rural), the seat his father was earlier representing. A party needs to win 35 seats to form government in the state assembly.
The BJP’s state chief Satpal Satti faced a humiliating defeat in Una from Congress’ candidate Satpal Singh Razda. BJP Chief Ministerial candidate Dhumal was trailing against his close rival Rajinder Rana of the Congress from Sujanpur at the time of filing this report. Dhumal’s close confidants Ravinder Ravi, Gulab Singh and Randhir Sharma, all sitting MLAs, and Tejwant Negi, have lost.
Congress cabinet ministers Sudhir Sharma, Thakur Singh and Prakash Chaudhary faced defeat from the BJP. Chaudhary lost from Balh in Mandi district with a big margin. BJP’s Inder Singh Gandhi won this seat. Similarly, BJP’s Ravindra Dhiman defeated Congress’ sitting MLA Yadvinder Goma from Jaisinghpur and Kishori Lal of the BJP defeated Bansi Lal of the Congress from Anni seat.
BJP’s sitting MLA Suresh Bhardwaj retained his Shimla seat, defeating Congress’ Harbhajan Bhajji. Anil Sharma, who resigned from the government and the ruling Congress and joined the opposition BJP just ahead of the polls along with his father and former Telecom Minister Sukh Ram, retained his Mandi seat.
A total of 337 candidates contested the November 9 election. A total of 37,83,580 people voted in the hill state — a record 75.28 per cent polling. The Congress and the BJP contested in all the 68 constituencies.