NEW DELHI: The Congress on Thursday arrested its electoral decline in Himachal Pradesh winning 39 of the 68 seats to oust the Bharatiya Janata Party from power but cut a sorry face in Gujarat where its tally slumped badly while the BJP broke its own record by romping home over 150 seats in the 182-member state Assembly.The Election Commission shows the BJP winning or trending in 26 constituencies, but even this number will be one less since it includes Chief Minister Jairam Thakur who has to vacate one of the two seats of Mandi and Seraj he has won.Asha Kumari, who has been the AICC in-charge of the Punjab affairs and a member of the royal family of Chamba, is tipped to be the Himachal Pradesh chief minister as this is her 6th victory in the Assembly elections.
The Congress on Thursday arrested its electoral decline in Himachal Pradesh winning 40 of the 68 seats to oust the Bharatiya Janata Party from power stopping it at 25 seats, but it cut a sorry face in Gujarat where its tally slumped badly to 17 while the BJP broke its own previous record by romping home 156 seats in the 182-member state Assembly.
The Election Commission shows the BJP winning 25 seats in Himachal Pradesh, but even that number will be one less since it includes 2 seats bagged by Chief Minister Jairam Thakur from Mandi and Seraj; he will have to vacate one of them. There was not much difference Percentage-wise as the Congress scored 43.91% votes as against the BJP’s 42.90%.
Independents, who are actually BJP rebels, won 3 seats in Himachal Pradesh. Even their induction back in the BJP will make no difference in the decisive victory of the Congress. In Gujarat, AAP bagged 5 seats with 12.91% votes and qualified to be a national party.
Three BJP rebels who are winning as independents may be roped in by the BJP, but it still lacks the numbers to prevent power to the Congress in Himachal Pradesh, which has a history of teh alternate party forming the government in the state.
The Mainpuri Lok Sabha by-election is won by Dimple Yadav, wife of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and daughter-in-law of Mulayam Singh Yadav, whose death early this year cause this election. Samajwadi Party’s Mohd Asim Raja also won the Rampur seat that became vacant on the disqualification of SP leader Azam Khan. The Khatauli seat was won by Madan Bhaiya of the Rashtriya Lok Dal, supported by the Samajwadi Party.
Uttar Pradesh is the only exception where the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party government of Yogi Adityanath could not win a single by-election while it was the ruling parties in four other states, except Bihar, getting their candidates elected in the Assembly by-elections.
Anil Kumar Sharma of Congress won the Rajasthan Assembly by-election from Sardarshahar, Savitri Mandavi of the Congress bagged the Bhanupratappur seat the Chhattisgarh by-election, Barsha Singh Bariha of Biju Janata Dal won Padampur in the Odisha by-election.
