BJP Loses in Himachal’s Mandi, 3 Other Assembly Seats in Litmus Test for Party Ahead of 2022 Elections

The BJP saw a huge loss as it lost their Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi parliamentary seat to Congress along with three other seats of Arki, Fatehpur Sikri and Jubbai – Kothkai.

The wife of late former CM Virbhadra Singh and Congress Candidate Pratibha Singh won the Mandi parliamentary seat against Brigadier and Kargil war hero Khushal Chand Thakur.

It was the very first time the Singh family contested in an election after the death of Virbhadra Singh that happened unfortunately due to COVID 19.

Pratibha Singh won the seat by a huge margin of 8.766 votes,

The Mandi parliamentary seat is known for its highest polling station located at Tshigang. It is at a height of 15,256 in the district of Lahaul-Spiti.

Along with the Singh family, CM Jai Ram Thakur was also a tough contender. This election was a litmus test for him as Mandi is his home district and he tried his luck for this seat for the first time.

On the other hand, Congress won three other seats. For assembly seats, the competition was between Congress candidate Rohit Thakur and Independent Chetan Bragta for the Jubbal Kotkai seat.

Chetan Bragta is the son of the ex-horticulture minister Narendra Bragta. He passed away in June due to post-COVID complications.

Thakur won the seat from Bragta with a margin of almost 6,000 votes.

For the seat of Arki, Congress candidate Sanjay Awasthy won the assembly elections by 3,277 votes.

For the Fatehpur Sikri seat, Congress candidate Bhawani Singh Pathania won the seat from Baldev Thakur of BJP by 5,625 votes.

The bypolls of all these seats were held on October 30 as they became vacant after the death of the current ministers and party members.

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