'Jai Ram Ji Ki' in Mandi: BJP Loses, But 'Accidental CM' Thakur Holds onto Himachal Bastion

In the run-up to the polling for the 68 seats of Himachal assembly, the opposition had targeted him, calling him “underperforming” and “accidental Chief Minister”, with some even doubting if he could hold onto his fort, but 57-year-old Jai Ram Thakur, perhaps, silenced his detractors both within and outside the party.

Thakur not only won by a mammoth record margin of 38,000 votes, but the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) performed impressively by winning nine of the 10 seats in his home district of Mandi.

Interestingly, just over a year ago, the Congress had wrested the Mandi Lok Sabha seat from the BJP in the by-elections, raising questions over Thakur’s “performance”.

In the last Vidhan Sabha polls in 2017, the BJP had swept Mandi by winning nine seats, while one segment of Jogindernagar was won by an independent Prakash Rana.

IN CONTRAST

Thakur’s performance in his home district was in stark contrast to the saffron party’s performance in other parts of the state.

Contrast this to Kangra district, which seems to have once again kept up its tradition of changing the government every five years. The Congress won 10 of the 15 segments up for grabs, leaving the BJP with just four seats, while the remaining went to an independent. The BJP had won 11 seats in the region in 2017.

Two sitting ministers of the BJP, including Rakesh Pathania and Sarveen Chaudhary, lost their seats. Rakesh Pathania, who was shifted from Nurpur to Fatehpur, lost against sitting Congress MLA Bhawani Singh Pathania, while Sarveen lost to Kewal Singh Pathania of the Congress.

ANURAG THAKUR’s HOME DISTRICT

Importantly, in the 14 assembly segments falling under the Hamirpur Lok Sabha constituency, held by Union minister Anurag Thakur, the Congress won a majority of the seats. The party bagged nine seats, while the BJP could finish second with four seats and one was bagged by an independents. Worse, in Anurag Thakur’s home district Hamirpur, the BJP failed to even any of the five assembly segments. While the Congress won four, the remaining fifth seat of Hamirpur (Sadar) was won by independent Ashish Sharma by a handsome margin of 12,899.

JP NADDA’S STRONGHOLD

Even in BJP national president J P Nadda’s stronghold Bilaspur, the results haven’t been all too impressive. Although the party won three of the four seats, but most of it came with a slender margin. A BJP candidate from Bilaspur (Sadar), the home turf of Nadda, has won by only 276 votes.

Even in Naina Devi, the segment adjacent to Bilaspur (Sadar), the BJP managed to barely scrape through with a winning margin of 171 votes. Randhir Sharma, state BJP spokesperson, won the Naina Devi seat, defeating senior Congress leader Ram Lal Thakur, who has been an MLA on five occasions, previously.

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