Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu hailed his wife Kamlesh Thakur's ‘historic’ victory in key by-polls on Saturday. He said the Congress was not able to win the elections in Dehra assembly constituency for 25 years. Hitting out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the CM said, “The people of Himachal have defeated money power by supporting people power and have given a befitting reply to the political conspiracy of BJP.”
Sukhu also hit out at three independent MLAs who had resigned a few months back that led to the bye-elections.
"Three independent MLAs had no reason to resign. They could have simply allied with the BJP, but even they learnt their lesson. This is people's victory," Sukhu said. He said people have given a befitting reply for the kind of poaching that happened in state politics in the past.
"This also gave a message that the people of the state are aware and awake, and such poaching will not work...," the Himachal Chief Minister said.
Bypolls to three assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh – Dehra, Hamirpur and Nalagarh – took place on July10 and results were announced on Saturday. "All the three seats are a stronghold of the BJP and we have won two of them, this is a big deal...," Sukhu said.
The bypoll in Himachal Pradesh was necessitated after the three Independents who had voted in favour of the BJP in the Rajya Sabha polls on February 27 resigned on March 22.
They had joined the BJP the next day but their resignations were accepted by the Speaker on June 3. The BJP had fielded the Independents from their respective seats as party candidates.
Sukhu's statement came as his wife and Congress candidate Kamlesh Thakur won the Dehra Assembly seat for the first time on Saturday. Thakur, in her poll debut, defeated BJP candidate Hoshiyar Singh by a margin of 9,399 votes. Thakur polled 32,737 votes in the bypoll against 23,338 votes polled by Singh. The three Independent candidates in this seat could not get even 200 votes each.
Of the 86,520 voters in this assembly segment, 65.42 per cent exercised their franchise on July 10.
On Saturday, Sukhu told why the Congress fielded his wife from the Dehra seat. “The reason for fielding my wife from Dehra was to make the Congress enter Kangra and increase the MLAs of the valley from 9 to 10...”
Congratulating Kamlesh Thakur for winning the seat, Sukhu said, "Hearty congratulations to Congress candidate Kamlesh Thakur ji from Dehra assembly constituency for registering a historic victory in the assembly by-election and heartfelt gratitude to the respected voters."
"This election has given a clear message that the people of Himachal will not tolerate the actions of harming democracy and attacking the mandate of the state on the strength of the power of the Center," Sukhu posted on X.
Meanwhile, Kamlesh Thakur said, “The party leaders and workers worked day and night for this day... I will give all credit to the people who stood by the party throughout... I am proud of the people of Dehra...”
