BJP’s Lakhanpal beats Dhatwalia in Barsar

Hamirpur, June 4

In a close contest, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, BJP candidate in the Barsar Assembly byelection, defeated Congress nominee Subhash Chand Dhatwalia by a margin of 2,125 votes today. Lakhanpal secured 33,086 votes, which was 51.04 per cent of total the 64,822 votes polled, while Subhash Chand Dhatwalia got 30,961 votes (47.76%)

In the 2022 Assembly election, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal had secured 30,293 votes as the Congress candidate and defeated Maya Sharma of the BJP by margin of 13,792 votes.

Maya Sharma had secured 16,501 votes in the 2022 poll.

Lakhanpal contested as the BJP candidate this time after he was expelled from Vidhan Sabha along with five other MLAs.

Speaking after his victory, Lakhanpal said he was thankful to people of Barsar constituency for electing him for the fourth time consecutively to the Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha. He also thanked the state BJP leadership, including former CMs Jai Ram Thakur and Prem Kumar Dhumal, Union Minister Anurag Thakur and BJP president JP Nadda, for inducting him in the BJP and giving him ticket to contest election on BJP platform.

Lakhanpal also expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister Amit Shah. He said he would continue to work for the development of the constituency and for the welfare of Barsar’s people.

Congress candidate Subhash Chand Dhatwalia, while accepting his defeat, said the mandate of people was supreme and despite his defeat he would continue to work for the development and welfare of the constituency. He said CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu had assured that he would not compromise on the development of the constituency.