The Modi wave sweeping across much of India had no cover left for the Congress in Himachal Pradesh where it lost all four seats, leaving Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh in a crisis.
Not only did the BJP win all four seats in the State but also won Sujjanpur Tira Assembly segment, the bye-election for which was held along with the Parliamentary poll, to make the rout complete for the ruling party in the State. In Kangra old guard, BJP leader Shanta Kumar won by over 1.7 lakh vote margin, in Shimla sitting MP Virender Kashyap overcame anti-incumbency to retain the seat by a margin of over 73 thousand votes and in Hamirpur two-time MP Anurag Thakur won by over 83 thousand votes.
What has come as a shock to the 17-month-old Virbhadra Government, Mandi was that despite a Cabinet of 11 Ministers, Congress did not have a lead in any Assembly segment over BJP, which included Shimla rural seat represented by the Chief Minister himself.less than a year ago, Pratibha Singh had only won the Mandi seat in a bye-election by a margin of over 1.3 lakh votes. On being elected Chief Minister, the seat had been vacated by her husband Virbhadra Singh. Greenhorn Ram Swaroop Sharma was being considered a weak BJP candidate as the party took a lot of time to announce a candidate for the seat.
The results declared on Friday showed that barring five Assembly segments, BJP had a decisive lead in 12 of them to wrest the seat from the Congress. The rout was so complete that the even the Assembly represented by Kaul Singh Thakur, Prakash Chaudhary and Anil Sharma, Ministers in the Virbhadra Cabinet, BJP had a lead over Congress in them.
In Kangra, BJP led in all 17 Assembly segments giving a thumping majority to Shanta Kumar. The seat was earlier also held by BJP but the party had not only denied a ticket to outgoing MP Rajan Sushant but also had expelled him from the party. Sushant contested the seat on a AAP ticket but lost his security deposit by polling a mere 24,430 votes.
In Hamirpur, BJP’s Anurag Thakur retained the seat by trouncing Congress candidate Rajinder Singh Rana decisively. Barring in one Assembly segment, Congress trailed in 16 Assembly segments.In the Sujjanpur Tira Assembly segment, Narinder Thakur of BJP defeated Anita Kumari Rana of Congress by a thin margin of 538 votes. Thakur polled 22,993 votes against Rana’s 22,455 votes.