Himachal Pradesh Assembly Election Results 2017: BJP snatches hill state from Congress; full list of winning candidates

Wresting power from the Congress in Himachal Pradesh, BJP bagged 44 seats in the 68-seat Assembly on Monday to form the next government in the state. The hill state witnessed a record 75.28 percent turnout.

BJP’s chief ministerial face, Prem Kumar Dhumal, faced defeat in the contest for the Sujanpur Assembly seat. He lost to his Congress rival Rajinder Singh Rana by about 3,500 votes.

Dhumal accepted his defeat and said that the result was unexpected and the party would do introspection.

Congress candidate Anirudh Singh won the Kasumpti seat by defeating BJP’s Vijay Jyoti by a margin of 9,397 votes.

Congress veteran and six-time chief minister Virbhadra Singh and his son Vikramaditya Singh won from Arki and Shimla (Rural) respectively.

Himachal Pradesh has a tradition of change in government after every election and after defeating the Congress, the BJP is all set to form the government in the hill state.

The BJP ousted the Congress in 1990 and the Congress avenged defeat in 1993. The BJP formed the government with the help of Himachal Vikas Congress in 1998 and the Congress was back in power in 2003. The BJP then made a comeback in 2007.

Here’s the party-wise break up of seats:

With inputs from PTI

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