Himachal bypolls: CM Sukhu’s wife Kamlesh Thakur wins Dehra, BJP’s Ashish Sharma Hamirpur

Both Dehra and Hamirpur fall under the Hamirpur Lok Sabha constituency being represented by BJP MP and former Union minister Anurag Thakur.

“Congress candidate Kamlesh Thakur has won the Dehra bye-election. BJP candidate Ashish Sharma Hamirpur Assembly. After EVM vote count, counting of postal ballots is on. Results will be out shortly,” a State Election Commission official said.

The bypolls in the three Assembly seats were necessitated after the three Independent MLAs from these seats resigned and joined the BJP in March. Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania accepted their resignations on June 3.

Kamlesh Thakur was born in Chamnal village in Nalsuha panchayat on April 2, 1970. She did her schooling in Dehra and completed her MA in Political Science from Government College, Chandigarh, in 1981. She married CM Sukhu on June 11, 1998. She has been an active member of Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) for almost two decades.

Throughout her campaign, she promised residents that if she won, another office of CM Sukhu would be opened in Dehra. To ensure her win, CM Sukhu told electors that if they elected his wife, they would be electing another chief minister.

In the 68-member Himachal Pradesh Assembly, the Congress has 38 MLAs and the BJP 27. In the 2022 Assembly elections, the Congress had won 40 seats, the BJP 25 and three seats were won by Independents.