SHIMLA: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has once again emerged victorious in all four Lok Sabha seats in Himachal Pradesh. The
Congress party
, which is currently in power in the state, failed to secure a single seat despite having the
chief minister
and
deputy chief minister
from
Hamirpur
and half of the cabinet from Shimla.
The Congress party's decision not to field a strong candidate against BJP's Anurag Thakur in Hamirpur proved to be a costly mistake.
The party had initially considered fielding deputy chief minister Mukesh Agnihotri and his daughter Aastha Agnihotri, but they declined due to family reasons.
There were also rumors of chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu's wife contesting, but the party ultimately chose former Una MLA Satpal Raizada.
Here is the full list of all winning candidates:
The Congress party's efforts to make issues such as Agniveer, the old pension scheme, and the expansion of the rail network central to the election campaign did not yield the desired results. However, BJP candidate Kangana Ranaut emerged victorious in Mandi, despite being targeted by Congress leaders on the "beef" issue. The slogan "Mandi ki Beti" given by the BJP and Modi's defense of Ranaut, along with support from women voters, worked in her favor.
In the Shimla seat, Congress candidate and PWD minister Vikramaditya Singh, son of former chief minister late Virbhadra Singh and state Congress president Pratibha Singh, was unable to capitalize on the 'royal' factor or the developmental works done by his late father in the Mandi Lok Sabha area.
The BJP fielded sitting MP Suresh Kashyap once again, while the Congress nominated Kasauli MLA Vinod Sultanpuri, whose father late KD Sultanpuri had won the seat six times. However, Kashyap managed to secure the victory.
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