Hectic electioneering over, leaders spend relaxed day with families, supporters

Pratibha Chauhan

Shimla, June 2

Amidst claims and counter claims of victory in the Lok Sabha elections and the Assembly byelections, all candidates and senior leaders of the Congress and the BJP, including Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Union Minister Anurag Thakur, former Union Minister Anand Sharma, Vikramaditya Singh and Kangana Ranaut, spent Sunday with their families and taking feedback from party workers to assess their winning prospects.

• Vikramaditya Singh spent the day in the company of his family members amid Shimla’s tranquil surroundings
• Kangana Ranaut retreated to her native village Bhambla in Sarkaghat to spend time with her family
• Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur spent the day at his native village Samirpur in Hamirpur taking feedback from booth-level in-charges

It was a relatively relaxed day for the leaders after a gruelling two-and-a-half-month campaigning in the peak of the summer. They spent time in the comfort of their homes and taking feedback from party workers. The Election Commission pegged the final voting percentage in the state at 71, a slight decline from 72.42 per cent recorded in the 2019 parliamentary elections. The candidates of the Congress and the BJP, who were locked in a direct contest on all four seats of Kangra, Mandi, Hamirpur and Shimla, are now anxiously awaiting the election results.

The Chief Minister returned from his home Assembly segment Nadaun to the state capital. He met officials regarding urgent matters and also some party leaders. “In the 2022 Assembly elections, the exit polls had given us 25 seats but we won 40. Though there is a tough fight on all four Lok Sabha seats, the Congress has an edge on two,” he claimed.

Sukhu said, “The Congress will win at least five of the six Assembly byelections while there was a close contest on one seat. I believe it was the toughest elections for Anurag Thakur this time.”

He said, “The exit polls are totally different from field polls as the ground reality is different. It appears that the exit polls are based on the past statistics as the Congress had got very a good response to the rallies addressed by Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.”

Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur spent the day at his native village Samirpur in Hamirpur district taking feedback from booth-level in-charges. He would return to Delhi after the counting of votes, party leaders said. Kangana spent the day at her native place Bhambla in Sarkaghat, Mandi, while and Vikramaditya was at his home in Rampur town of Shimla district.

Former Union Minister Anand Sharma stayed put in Dharamsala. He could not cast his vote yesterday as his name was in the electoral rolls of the Shimla (Urban) segment while he was in Kangra. The candidates, who had fought the six Assembly byelections, too, spent a quiet day at their homes, assessing the voting trends and their winning prospects.