assembly-elections

Updated: Oct 25, 2019 07:18 IST

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday retained the Dharamshala and Pachhad assembly seats winning the by-polls held on Monday.

The BJP won the Dharamshala seat by a margin of 6758 votes as its arch-rival the Congress slipped to the third place and in Pachhad, the ruling party won by a margin of 2742 votes.

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In Dharamshala, Vishal Nehria polled 23,498 votes against his nearest rival Rakesh Chaudhary, a BJP rebel who contested as an Independent candidate. Chaudhary secured 16,740 votes.

The Congress was completely decimated as its candidate Vijay Inder Karan bagged only 8212 votes.

The BJP lead from the very first round in Dharamshala and extended the margin by up to 7000 votes till the fifth round.

Independent Rakesh Chaudhary, who belongs to dominant OBC community, closed in considerably in sixth and seventh rounds and the BJP’s lead was reduced to about 4300 votes.

However, the BJP gained in the eighth and ninth round and again extended the lead to more than 600 votes.

In Pachhad, the BJP’s candidate Reena Kashyap polled 22,048 votes against Congress’ veteran leader Gangu Ram Musafir who got 19306 votes.

The BJP’s rebel leader and Independent candidate Dayal Pyari got 11,651 votes and was on the third position.

The by-polls in Dharamshala and Pachhad were necessitated after the sitting legislators Kishan Kapoor and Suresh Kashyap were elected to the Lok Sabha in parliamentary elections held earlier this year.

Polling for the Dharamshala and Pachhad assembly segments was held on October 21 with more than 65% voters exercising their franchise in Dharamshala and 72% in Pachhad.

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