Mandi only setback for Congress

Dipender Manta

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Mandi, December 8

The poll results proved to be a major setback for the Congress in Mandi district, which lost nine of the 10 seats.

Senior leaders of the Congress like Kaul Singh Thakur from Darang, Prakash Chaudhary from Balh and Sohan Lal Thakur from Sundernagar lost the elections. Champa Thakur, daughter of Kaul Singh Thakur, also lost to BJP candidate Anil Sharma from Mandi Sadar.

The Congress succeeded to win only one seat. Its candidate Chander Shekhar from Dharampur defeated BJP’s Rajat Thakur by 3,026 votes. Rajat is the son of senior BJP leader Mahender Thakur.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur belongs to Mandi district and the work done by him in Mandi played a crucial role in the victory in his home district. Despite BJP rebels in the poll fray on three seats in Mandi Sadar, Sundernagar and Nachan, it could not hit the poll prospects of the BJP.

The BJP did not give ticket to its two sitting MLAs in Darang and Karsog. New candidate Deep Raj defeated Congress candidate Mahesh Raj by 10,534 votes in Karsog. Similarly, Puran Chand Thakur from Darang defeated Congress’ Kaul Singh Thakur by 618 votes.