Shimla: Congress has won all three Assembly seats and Mandi Lok Sabha seat in Himachal Pradesh that went to by-polls on October 30th.

Jubbal-Kotkhai has been won by Rohit Thakur of Congress. The bypoll was necessitated because sitting BJP MLA Narinder Bragta died in June.  In Fatehpur, Bhawani Singh Pathiani has retained the seat left empty after the death of his father - MLA and former minister Sujan Singh Pathania. And in Arki, Sanjay Awasthy defeated the BJP's Rattan Singh Pal by 3,219 votes.

Ahead of a full Assembly election next year, the bypolls were seens as a litmus test for the BJP government led by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur. 

Read: https://24x7liveindia.com/bjp-lost-hangal-to-congress-wins-sindgi-seat

BJP candidate Neelam Seraik in Jubbal-Kotkhai lost deposit which BJP had won in 2017. Congress' victory is viewed as a major boost before 2022 assembly elections.

Mandi Lok Sabha: 

In another bypoll for the Mandi Lok Sabha seat, BJP lost against Congress. The BJP's Kargil war hero Brigadier (retd) Khushal Chand Thakur and the Congress Pratibha Singh, who is the wife of Virbhadra Singh, were in contention. Pratibha Singh won from Mandi parliamentary seat by 8766 votes.

In 2019 BJP had won the Mandi Lok Sabha seat with the margin of 4 lakh votes. Mandi falls in home district of CM Jairam Thakur. The bypoll for Mandi LS seat was held because sitting MP Ram Swaroop Sharma of the BJP died in March 2021.

Himachal Pradesh CM Jai Ram Thakur said, he humbly accepts the verdict given by people in by-elections to one Lok Sabha seat and  three Assembly constituencies. He said the results were not as per expectations. He said that BJP lost Mandi Parliamentary seat with a narrow margin.