Contrary to the popular belief of dwindling support for his six months’ old Government, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh once again proved his charisma as his wife Pratibha Singh, a Congress candidate for Mandi parliamentary constituency registered a thumping victory on Sunday.
Pratibha Singh won the Mandi parliamentary seat by 1, 36, 724 votes taking the lead in 16 constituencies except one. Singh defeated her nearest rival a four-time MlA and BJP candidate Jai Ram Thakur who got 2, 16, 768 votes.
Unlike the Assembly polls, BJP had put up a united face in the by-poll with former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, party veteran Shanta Kumar and national general secretary JP Nadda, all campaigning for the party candidate Jai Ram Thakur, who is a four-time MlA from Seraj Assembly constituency and former cabinet minister. Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh campaigned for his wife single handedly without any central leaders as star campaigners and held over 100 rallies across the Mandi constituency which is country’s second biggest constituency area wise after Rajasthan’s Barmer parliamentary constituency.
Mandi by-poll was a high stake battle for Congress as Chief Minister’s wife was contesting the election and the seat was vacated by Virbhadra Singh himself. On the other hand, BJP also faced a tough challenge to contest the Mandi seat after its earlier candidate, two-time MP from the seat Maheshwar Singh rebelled from the party during Assembly polls and formed his own outfit Himachal lokhit Party. Maheshwar Singh supported Congress candidate Pratibha Singh in the by-poll.
Both the candidates of BJP and Congress managed to score high in their home city or constituency as Pratibha Singh got a maximum lead from Rampur assembly constituency, Thakur managed to maintain his only lead in his own constituency Seraj with 2556 votes over Singh.
Rain ravaged Kinnaur Assembly constituency in which polling was deferred due to large scale devastation of life and property saw 54 percent polling, which also gave a much wanted lead to Pratibha Singh with 11, 589 votes.
Such were the stakes that Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had come under immense criticism from the opposition after he left for Mandi straightaway for campaigning from Kinnaur despite being stranded at Sangla valley for 60 hours during incessant rains.
Virbhadra who was in Delhi at the time of announcement of results of his wife winning the seat thanked the voters of Mandi parliamentary constituency for giving huge mandate to Congress candidate and said that this was victory of the ideology and leadership of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi.
He said that the victory reflects that people have expressed their faith and confidence in the programmes and policies of the state government and said that this victory would further strengthen the resolve of the state government for ensuring the all round development. He specially thanked the voters of the Kinnaur district who overwhelmingly voted for the Congress candidate despite of the natural calamity in the region and assured them that government would reciprocate with same spirit for ensuring the speedy development works and undertaking massive relief and rehabilitation works in the region to bring normalcy in the area.
BJP candidate Jai Ram Thakur also thanked the people for their support and congratulated Congress candidate Pratibha Singh for the win and hoped that she will fulfill the expectations of people of Mandi constituency.