Kamlesh Thakur Wins Dehra By-Election in Himachal Pradesh
Kamlesh Thakur, the wife of Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, has won the assembly by-election from the Dehra constituency. She defeated Hoshyar Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by over 9,000 votes.
After her victory, Kamlesh Thakur expressed her gratitude to the party leaders and workers, saying, “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.”
Chief Minister Sukhu also commented on the Congress’s performance, stating, “People of Himachal gave us 40 seats in 2022. People have given a befitting reply to the kind of poaching that happened in state politics in the past.” He added, “I had put in everything for the Dehra constituency. I want to congratulate Kamlesh Thakur for winning the seat. The reason for fielding my wife from Dehra was to make Congress enter Kangra and increase the MLAs in the valley from 9 to 10. All three seats are strongholds of BJP and we have won two of them. This is a big deal.”
Congress workers and supporters celebrated in Dhaliara in Kangra district as Kamlesh Thakur won the Dehra Assembly seat. In other results, Congress candidate Hardeep Singh Bawa is leading in the Nalagarh assembly constituency by 6,870 votes against BJP’s KL Thakur. The only positive news for BJP in Himachal Pradesh is in Hamirpur, where its candidate Ashish Sharma is leading by 1,571 votes.
The seats became vacant after three independent legislators, Hoshiyar Singh (Dehra), Ashish Sharma (Hamirpur), and KL Thakur (Nalagarh), resigned from the state assembly and joined the BJP.
Meanwhile, in Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party’s Mohinder Bhagat won the Jalandhar assembly seat by 37,325 votes. In West Bengal, the TMC is leading in all four seats, with Raiganj candidate Krishna Kalyani ahead by more than 50,000 votes.
The counting of votes for the 13 legislative assembly seats across seven states began on Saturday morning, with polling having taken place on July 10.