Victory of Himachal CM's wife in Assembly bypolls creates new record

The victory of Kamlesh Thakur, the wife of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, in the assembly by-election from Dehra seat has scripted history as for the first time both husband and wife are members of the house.

No independent was elected in the by-election and it was also for the first time that the house was without any independent member.

The strength of Congress, which had won 40 seats in the 2022 assembly polls, has increased to 40 again and the government which had become stable with 38 seats in the 68 member Vidhan Sabha after winning four by-elections in June this year has become stronger.

In the 2017 assembly elections, a record was set as former chief minister Virbhadra Singh and his son Vikramaditya Singh were elected and incidentally the duo were oldest and youngest members of the house.

Veteran Congress leader Sarla Sharma and her husband Parasram (CPIM) also remained members of the Vidhan Sabha but they were never members of the same house. Parasram was elected in 1967 but his wife who contested on a Congress ticket lost the elections. The couple had contested from two different assembly seats and it was vice versa in 1972 assembly polls.

In the 2022 assembly polls, BJP's Reena Kashyap, who was elected from the Pachhad constituency, was the lone women member in the house but with the victory of Kamlesh Thakur, the number has risen to two.