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Journalism of Courage
The Congress managed to open its account in Mandi wresting Dharampur Assembly seat from the BJP even as the saffron party maintained its 2017 election tally of winning nine of the total 10 constituencies in the second largest district of Himachal Pradesh.
Congress’ Chander Shekhar won from Dharampur defeating his nearest rival and BJP candidate Rajat Thakur with a margin of 2,807 votes. Thakur is son of BJP’s former minister Mahendra Singh Thakur, who had stepped down to make way for his son to enter politics.
Mandi also recorded the biggest victory margin with BJP’s Jai Ram Thakur, who in the evening resigned as chief minister, retaining his Seraj seat with a margin of 38,183 votes for a sixth term as an MLA. He has represented this constituency since 1998 and was the first CM of Himachal Pradesh from Mandi district, which has around 8.58 lakh voters.
The other seats won by BJP in the district include Mandi where Anil Sharma defeated nearest rival, Congress’ Champa Thakur, by 10,006 votes. This is Sharma’s fourth consecutive victory from Mandi and fifth overall — thrice as Congress nominee and twice (2017, 2022) on BJP ticket. Sharma remained a minister in the Jai Ram government till April 2019.
From Sundernagar, BJP’s Rakesh Jamwal won against Congress’ Sohan Lal by 8,125 votes. Saffron party’s Puran Chand Thakur won from Darang defeating Congress’ Kaul Singh Thakur, an eight-time MLA, by 618 votes. From Balh, BJP’s Inder Singh won with a margin of 1,588 votes, defeating Congress’ Parkash Chaudhary. Also, BJP nominee Daleep Thakur won from Sarkaghat constituency.
Debutant Deep Raj Kapoor of BJP won from Karsog (SC) seat with a margin of 10,534 votes defeating Congress’s Mahesh Raj. BJP also bagged the other reserved constituency — Nachan ( SC) — with its sitting MLA Vinod Kumar defeating nearest rival, Congress’s Naresh Kumar\, by 8956 votes. Another sitting MLA, Parkash Rana, retained the Joginder Nagar constituency. Rana, wjho had won the seat as an Independent candidate in 2017, had contested this time on BJP ticket. He defeated Congress’s Surendra Pal Thakur by 4339 votes. In 2017, he had defeated BJP’s Gulab Singh Thakur, who is father-in-law of Union Minister Anurag Thakur.
The Aam Aadmi Party, which contested its maiden Assembly election, failed to make any impact in Mandi. It had fielded candidates on all 10 seats, but its nominee Sunita Thakur had withdrawn her papers from Darang and joined the BJP, while the nomination papers of its candidate from Seraj, Gita Nand Thakur, were rejected during scrutiny.
Though Jai Ram Thakur had highlighted the setting up of Atal Medical and Research University in Mandi and of launching the construction of Shiv Dham, a religious tourism centre, the locals were miffed with poor parking arrangements in most constituencies. Bad roads too painted a poor picture of the BJP government, which was also blamed for not doing much about the rehabilitation of people displaced by projects to widen national highways into four lanes.
