BJP trounces Congress in Himachal Pradesh

The ruling BJP on Thursday bagged all four Lok Sabha seats in Himachal Pradesh, repeating its 2014 performance by trouncing the Congress.

The BJP candidates won by a margin of over three lakh votes in Lok Sabha seats of Mandi, Kangra and Shimla, with the party cornering 69 per cent of vote share in the state.

Its Hamirpur candidate Anurag Thakur too had an unassailable lead of over three lakh votes over his Congress rival Ram Lal Thakur.

Suresh Kashyap of BJP won by 3,27,515 votes against his nearest rival Dhani Ram Shandil of Congress from Shimla Lok Sabha seat, a state election officer said.

Kashyap polled 6,06183 votes, whereas Shandil got 2,78,668 votes. All the other four candidates lost their deposit.

In 2014, Virender Kashyap of BJP had won by defeating Mohan Lal Brakata of Congress by 84,198 votes.This time the BJP dropped him and fielded Pachhad MLA Suresh Kashyap.

In Mandi, sitting BJP MP Ram Swaroop Sharma won with a margin of 4,05,459 votes against his nearest rival Aashray Sharma of Congress. In 2014, Ram Swaroop Sharma had defeated former CM Virbhadra Singh's wife Pratibha Singh by 39,856 votes.

In Kangra, BJP candidate Kishan Kapoor won by 4,77,623 votes against his nearest rival Pawan Kajal of Congress, a state election officer said. Kapoor polled 7,25,218 votes, whereas Kajal could get only 2,47,595 votes.

In 2014, former Chief Minister Shanta Kumar (4,56,163 votes) had defeated Congress' Chander Kumar (2,86,091 votes) by 1,70,072 votes from this seat. This time BJP dropped its veteran leader and gave ticket to its HP's cabinet minister Kishan Kapoor.

The BJP had wrested the state from the Congress in 2017 assembly election, winning 44 seats out of 68 and getting 48.7 per cent votes.

The Congress got 27 per cent of votes in Lok Sabha election, down from 41.8 per cent in the assembly polls.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur thanked the state's electorate for their "unprecedented" support to the BJP and congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah for the massive mandate in the Lok Sabha elections.

"It is for the first time in the history of the state that BJP candidates have won with such a huge margin in all parliamentary seats (of the state)," the chief minister said in a statement here.

The result is a referendum of the people of the nation and the state on the policies and programmes of the BJP governments at the Centre and the state, he said.