Shimla, Jun 4 (PTI) BJP was won the Mandi and Kangra Lok Sabha seats and the party is way ahead of the Congress in the remaining two parliamentary constituencies of Himachal Pradesh, according to Election Commission data.
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.
Union minister Anurag Thakur, seeking a fifth term from the Hamirpur seat, is ahead by a margin of 1,82,357 votes over Congress’ Satpal Raizada, data from EC’s website at 7.15 pm showed.
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.
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 told PTI.
“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 told PTI 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.
State BJP chief Rajiv Bindal said people have once again given the mandate to the party.
The BJP is leading on all four Lok Sabha seats in Himachal Pradesh despite the fact that the Congress government “misused” its power, Bindal said in a video message released here.
He said this is a “major defeat” of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, who has “failed to deliver” in his government’s 18-month tenure so far.
Counting of votes began at 8 am at 80 counting centres across the state for the Lok Sabha seats and the six assembly constituencies where bypolls were held simultaneously on June 1.
The assembly constituencies where bypolls were held are Sujanpur, Dharamshala, Lahaul and Spiti, Barsar, Gagret and Kutlehar. PTI BPL RPA
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