BJP's Rajinder Rana loses to Congress's Ranjit Singh in Himachal's Sujanpur bypoll

BJP candidate from Sujanpur assembly seat Rajinder Rana on Tuesday lost to Congress's Ranjit Singh by a margin of 2,440 votes in the Himachal Pradesh by-elections, according to the Election Commission. Rana, a Congress rebel who had defeated former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal in the 2017 assembly polls, got 27,089 votes against 29,529 polled by Singh, a retired Captain.

The Sujanpur assembly by-election saw a repeat of the 2022 election with the two old rivals Rana and Singh up against each other, except that they had swapped their parties this time.

While Rana recently switched to the BJP, Singh joined the Congress after Rana was given a BJP ticket for the Sujanpur bypoll.


In 2022, Rana had defeated Singh by a slender margin of 399 votes. Later Rana had raised the banner of revolt against Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.

The Sujanpur constituency has 77,742 voters. The voter turnout was 63.76 percent in the by-election, which was held simultaneously with Lok Sabha polls on June 1.

Sujanpur is one of the six assembly constituencies which had fallen vacant after six Congress rebels voted for BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan in the Rajya Sabha polls and were later disqualified by the speaker for defying the whip by not remaining present in the house during voting on cut motions and passing of Budget.