Congress set to ‘secure’ Himachal govt, ahead in 4 of 6 bypolls

Congress candidates were leading in four of the six Assembly seats for which bypolls were held. In the other two seats, the BJP was ahead.

The two BJP candidates who were leading are Sudhir Sharma in Dharamshala and Inder Dutt Lakhanpal in Barsar.

The bypolls were held on June 1, simultaneously with elections to the four Lok Sabha seats.

The bypolls, in Sujanpur, Dharamshala, Lahaul & Spiti, Barsar, Gagret and Kutlehar, were necessitated by the disqualification of Congress rebels for voting against the party in the Rajya Sabha polls. All the six had been fielded by the Congress in the bypolls, while the Congress had also fielded two BJP turncoats.

The Congress candidates who were leading were Anuradha Rana (Lahaul & Spiti), Captain Ranjit Singh (Sujanpur), Rakesh Kalia (Gagret), and Vivek Sharma (Kutlehar).

The resignations of three Independent MLAs were accepted on Monday, decreasing the total strength of the House to 59, making the halfway mark 30. If it wins 4 seats, the Congress would go up to 38, and if the BJP wins its 2, it would have 27 members.

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