BJP wins Mandi, Kangra and Hamirpur LS seats in Himachal
Shimla: BJP won the Mandi, Kangra and Hamirpur Lok Sabha seats in Himachal Pradesh and the party is way ahead of the Congress in the remaining parliamentary constituency of Shimla, according to Election Commission data.
Union minister Anurag Thakur won the Hamirpur parliamentary seat for the fifth consecutive time, defeating his nearest rival and Congress candidate Satpal Raizada by a margin of 1,82,357 votes, according to the Election Commission.
The four-time MP polled 6,07,068 votes against 4,24,711 votes bagged by Raizada, a former MLA from Una. Thakur voiced optimism that the BJP-led NDA would once again form the government in the country and thanked the people for giving a massive mandate to the party in Himachal Pradesh. BJP’s Kangana Ranaut, a Bollywood actor, has defeated her rival, Congress’s Vikramaditya Singh by 74,755 votes in Mandi.
She polled 5,37,002 votes against 4,62,267 votes polled to King of erstwhile Rampur state, who is also the sitting state Public Works Minister and son of six times chief minister Virbhadra Singh and state Congress chief Pratibha Singh.
In Kangra, BJP’s nominee Rajiv Bhardwaj has won the seat by a margin of 2,51,895 votes. Bhardwaj’s Congress rival Anand Sharma has conceded defeat. “Contesting from Kangra was a splendid experience and I accept my defeat humbly and congratulate Rajiv Bhardwaj for his success,” Sharma, a former Union minister, said.
“I am thankful to the Congress party leadership and colleagues who trusted me and I accepted the party’s decision knowing that Kangra was a BJP bastion,” he said. “I am grateful to the people of Kangra and Chamba for their love and affection,” he added.
In Shimla, former state BJP president and sitting party MP Suresh Kashyap is leading by 90,548 votes over his nearest Congress rival Vinod Sultanpuri. Kashyap said that the results seemed to be on the lines of exit polls and that people had made up their mind to make Narendra Modi the prime minister for a third time.
