Assembly Bypolls Results 2024: Kamlesh Thakur, Wife of Himachal Pradesh CM, Wins Dehra Seat

Thakur defeated her nearest rival, Hoshyar Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), by a margin of 9,399 votes. According to the Election Commission website, Kamlesh Thakur secured 32,737 votes, while Singh received 23,338 votes.

Following her win, Thakur expressed her gratitude to the party and the people of Dehra. “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,” she told reporters in Kangra.

In the Nalagarh assembly constituency, Congress candidate Hardeep Singh Bawa was leading by 6,870 votes against BJP’s K.L Thakur in the penultimate round of counting.

BJP’s Narrow Lead in Hamirpur

The BJP found some solace in Hamirpur, where its candidate was leading by a slender margin of 1,571 votes in the final round of counting.

The Nalagarh assembly constituency recorded the highest polling percentage at 79.04 percent, followed by Hamirpur at 67.72 percent and Dehra at 65.42 percent. The seats became vacant after the three Independent legislators—Hoshyar Singh (Dehra), Ashish Sharma (Hamirpur), and K.L. Thakur (Nalagarh)—who had supported the BJP in the Rajya Sabha polls on February 27, resigned from the state assembly on March 22 and joined the BJP the next day. The BJP subsequently fielded all three former MLAs from their respective seats.

Nationwide Trends

Across the 13 assembly seats in seven states that went to polls last week, Congress is leading in five assembly constituencies, while the Trinamool Congress (TMC) is leading in all four assembly constituencies in West Bengal. In Tamil Nadu, DMK, a key ally of Congress, was leading in the Vikravandi assembly constituency by over 35,000 votes after 10 rounds of counting.

In Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Mohinder Bhagat won the Jalandhar West assembly seat by defeating BJP candidate Sheetal Angural by a margin of over 37,325 votes. Congress candidate Surinder Kaur was pushed to third position with 16,757 votes, while Shiromani Akali Dal’s Surjit Kaur was a distant fourth with just 1,242 votes.