In the 2017 Himachal assembly elections, more than 15 candidates from Congress and BJP marked victory by a meagre margin. These faces are again in the fray. In the last assembly elections, candidates won seats with a difference of 120 to 1879 votes. Both parties’ leaders are working hard in the election fray to win these seats this time as well.
In the 2017 Vidhan Sabha elections of Himachal Pradesh, the 16 seats that were won with only a ten percent of margin, were Chamba, Dalhousie, Indora, Kullu, Jaswan Paragpur, Nagrota, Sujanpur, Barsar, Nadaun, Sri Naina Deviji, Nalagarh, Solan, Kasauli, Theog, Jubbal Kotkhai, Kinnaur. Last time in the 2017 assembly elections, the margin in three of these seats was less than 450, 120 votes difference recorded in Kinnaur, 439 in Barsar and 442 in Kasauli. In Kinnaur, Congress MLA Jagat Singh Negi defeated BJP candidate Tejwant Negi by 120 votes only. This time in 2022, by not giving ticket to Tejwant Singh Negi from Kinnaur, BJP has given ticket to Surat Negi. On the other hand, Congress has fielded its old candidate Jagat Singh Negi. Apart from this, Congress MLA Indradutt Lakhanpal defeated BJP candidate Baldev Sharma by 439 votes in Barsar. This time BJP has given ticket to Baldev Sharma’s wife Maya Sharma from Barsar.
In Kasauli, Health Minister Dr. Rajiv Sehjal defeated Congress candidate Vinod Sultanpuri by a margin of 442 votes. This time too, both the candidates from Kasauli are fighting against each other in the election fray. In Chamba, BJP MLA Pawan Nair won over Congress candidate Neeraj Nair by 7.2 percent which is 1879 votes. In Dalhousie, Congress MLA Asha Kumari won over BJP candidate DS Thakur by 556 votes. BJP MLA from Indora Rita Devi defeated Kamal Kishor of Congress by 1095 votes.
From Jaswan Paragpur, Industries Minister Bikram Thakur defeated Surinder Singh Mankotia by 7.9 percent which is 1862 votes. At the same time, BJP MLA from Nagrota, Arun Kumar defeated Congress leader GS Bali by 1000 votes.
Congress MLA from Kullu Sunder Singh Thakur defeated Maheshwar Singh of BJP by 1538 votes, Congress MLA from Sujanpur Rajendra Rana defeated former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal by 1919 votes. At the same time, Congress MLA from Nadaun Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu defeated BJP’s Vijay Agnihotri by 2349 votes. Sri Naina Devi Congress MLA Ramlal Thakur won over BJP’s Randhir Sharma by 1042 votes and this time too both the leaders are in the fray. In Nalagarh, Lakhwinder Rana of Congress defeated KL Thakur of BJP by a margin of 1242 votes. In Solan, Congress MLA Dhaniram Shandil won over BJP’s
Rajesh Kashyap by
671 votes.
MLA from Theog Rakesh Singha defeated Rakesh Verma of BJP by 1983 votes, while Narendra Bragta of BJP defeated Rohit Thakur by 1062 votes from Jubbal Kot Khai.
