Congress has won Mandi Lok Sabha seat and all three assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh. In Mandi parliamentary seat, Congress candidate and former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh’s wife Pratibha Singh defeated BJP’s retired Brigadier Khushal Singh by a margin of 8766 votes. Similarly, Sanjay Awasthi of Congress won Arki assembly seat, Rohit Thakur of Jubbal-Kotkhai seat and Bhawani Singh Pathania of Congress won Fatehpur seat.
Voting was held on October 30 during the by-elections to these four seats and the counting of votes took place on Monday. Before the by-elections, Mandi Lok Sabha seat and Jubbal-Kotkhai assembly seat were with BJP, while Arki and Fatehpur assembly seats were with Congress.
The Election Commission has clarified that no political party will be allowed to take out victory processions after the counting of votes is over. Even after taking the election certificate from the Returning Officer after the result, only two people will be able to stay with the winning candidate. Himachal Chief Electoral Officer C. Palrasu said that the counting of votes is going on peacefully at all the centres. EVM and VVPAT slips of 5-5 polling stations of each assembly constituency are being matched.
