Himachal Bypolls: CM Sukhu's wife Kamlesh wins Dehra seat

In a win for the INDIA bloc in bypolls, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu's wife, Kamlesh Thakur, on Saturday won the Dehra assembly seat, beating her nearest rival and BJP candidate Hoshiyar Singh with a margin of over 9000 votes, according to Election Commission.

"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," said Kamlesh Thakur after winning the bypolls.

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Other seats of this northern state which anticipates a high voltage political contest are Nalagarh and Hamirpur assembly seat. In Hamirpur, BJP's Ashish Sharma, who was trailing in the first four rounds against Congress' Pushpinder Verma, was now ahead by 1545 votes after the seventh round.

Bypolls in Himachal Pradesh:
Thirteen candidates were in the fray from the three seats of Himachal Pradesh.

The seats fell vacant after the three Independent legislators Singh (Dehra), Sharma (Hamirpur) and K L Thakur (Nalagarh), who had voted in favour of the BJP in the Rajya Sabha polls held on February 27, resigned from the state assembly on March 22 and joined the party the next day.

The ugerncy came when their resignations were accepted by the assembly speaker on June 3, and the seats were declared vacant.

The BJP fielded all the three former MLAs from their respective seats.

The Congress fielded Kamlesh Thakur from Dehra, repeated its candidate Verma from Hamirpur and gave ticket to five-time Indian National Trade Union Congress president, Himachal Pradesh unit, Bawa, from Nalagarh.

Though the bypolls will not make much difference in the 68-member House as the Congress has a majority with 38 MLAs. The BJP has 27 members.

Bypolls in other states:
INDIA bloc member AAP won the Jalandhar West assembly bypoll in Punjab while its other constituents -- Congress, TMC and DMK -- were leading in 10 seats, and NDA parties in two as votes were counted on Saturday for the by-elections held earlier this week, according to the trends on the EC website and state officials.

Voting for the bypolls in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Tamil Nadu were held on Wednesday.

(with agency inputs)