Lotus bloom in Himachal as BJP wins all 4 LS seats (2024)

Interestingly, Kangna took the lead from round number 1 which started with the vote count in Rampur (SC) Assembly, which is considered the bastion of royal family of Rampur Bushahar. Kangna bagged 5,37,022 votes while Vikramaditya got 4,62,267 votes. In 2019, the Mandi seat was won by BJP candidate Ram Swaroop Sharma, who died in 2021, leading to bypoll which was won by Pratibha Singh, mother of Vikramaditya Singh and wife of six-time chief minister Virbhadra Singh, with a margin of 8,766 votes.

Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur won Hamirpur parliamentary seat for a consecutive fifth time with a margin of 1,82,357 votes. He secured 6,07,068 votes which were 75,244 votes less than last time. In 2019, he had received 6,82,292 votes. Congress candidate Satpal Raizada, who fought against Anurag Thakur, got 4,24,711 votes.

Former Union minister and four-time Rajya Sabha member Anand Sharma lost to the BJP’s Dr Rajeev Bhardwaj by a margin of 2,51,895 from Kangra parliamentary seat. Dr Bhardwaj received 6,32,793 votes while Sharma got 3,80,898 votes.

Congress candidate Vinod Sultanpuri from Shimla (SC) lost to the BJP’s Suresh Kumar Kashyap by 90,548 votes. Vinod Sultanpuri is a sitting MLA from Kasauli Assembly seat. He is the son of six-time MP from Shimla (SC) K D Sultanpuri.

State BJP president Dr Rajeev Bindal congratulated all the winning candidates. He said, “Today again Congress’s Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu was defeated. The credit of this landslide victory goes to PM Narendra Modi. We will soon form the government in the state too.”

The overall vote share of Congress increased from 20.73 per cent (2019) to 41.67 per cent in the 2024 parliamentary elections. Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said, “We lost all the four parliamentary seats despite our best efforts. We have improved our performance. Our vote share has increased during these elections as compared to 2019 parliamentary elections. In 2019, our vote share was 20.73 per cent. It reached 41.67 per cent this time. BJP’s vote share decreased from 69.11 per cent to around 19 per cent.”

Sukhu added, “Parliamentary elections were fought on national issues while Assembly bypolls on local issues. Indeed, PM Modi was a factor in these parliamentary elections. We will review the reasons for our defeat.”

A senior Congress leader said, “There are many factors behind the defeat. The major one is the delay in the selection of candidates. Our state party chief Pratibha Singh had conveyed to the party high command a long time ago that BJP is far ahead of us in the preparation for parliamentary elections.”

Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee president Pratibha Singh said the election results did not come as per expectations and the reason behind defeat would be reviewed.

Expressing gratitude to the voters who cast their votes in favour of her party in the Lok Sabha elections, she said the Congress has never backed down from its responsibility and will never do so.

The Congress leader congratulated all the BJP candidates, who won in the Lok Sabha elections, and expressed hope that they would make a significant contribution to the development of the state in accordance with public aspirations.

She also congratulated the Congress leaders, who won the by-elections in the state, and said that their victory has strengthened the Congress government in the state.

The results of the by-elections has proved that the people of the state are with the Congress government, she added.

Vikramaditya said that although he did not get success in the elections, he is fully dedicated to his vision of development of the Mandi constituency and will fulfill it at all costs.

He expressed his gratitude to all voters, who supported him wholeheartedly in the elections. He also congratulated his rival Kangana Ranaut of the BJP on her victory.

Addressing the media persons, Singh said that victory and defeat in elections are two sides of the same coin.

He said that he respects the mandate and accepts it. He said that he has always stood with the people of Mandi and will always do so.

Meanwhile, 23,125 electors pressed NOTA in the parliamentary constituencies of the state — 6,372 in Kangra, 5,930 in Shimla, 5,645 in Mandi, and 5,178 in Hamirpur.