June 4 (Punjab Khabarnama) : Amid a close contest in all six assembly byelections in Himachal Pradesh, Congress candidates are ahead of their rival BJP nominees in four seats.
The Congress candidates are leading in Sujanpur, Lahaul-Spiti, Gagret and Kutlehar. The BJP candidates, who are Congress turncoats, are ahead in Dharamshala and Barsar.
In Lahaul-Spiti, Congress candidate Anuradha Rana was leading by 1,329 votes at 12.30pm. She had secured 7,820 votes, while Independent candidate Ram Lal Markanda was trailing her with 6,491 votes. BJP candidate Ravi Thakur has got 2,698 votes so far.
Sujanpur Congress candidate Captain Ranjit Singh, who secured 28,577 votes so far, was leading with 2,174 votes. His BJP rival Rajinder Rana was trailing with 26,403 votes.
In Gagret, Congress candidate Rakesh Kalia was leading with 27,831 votes against his BJP rival Chaitanya Sharma, who has secured 21,571 votes so far.
Vivek Sharma, the Congress candidate from Kutlehar, was leading by 3,117 votes against BJP’s Davinder Bhutto.
The BJP candidates in Dharamshala and Barsar – Sudhir Sharma and Inder Dutt Lakhanpal – were leading over their Congress rivals Devinder Singh Jaggi and Subhash Chand, respectively.
The byelections were necessitated after six Congress MLAs rebelled and voted for BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan in the February 27 Rajya Sabha elections. Following their disqualification for defying the party whip to vote for Congress nominee Abhishek Manu Singhvi, they joined the BJP in Delhi and were fielded as candidates for the byelections.