The bypolls results in Himachal Pradesh which were considered to be semifinal for power ahead of 2022 assembly elections, gave a major shot in the arm to Congress while BJP has gone introspection mode with Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur asserting to work on shortcomings that led to party’s loss on all four seats.

Talking to the media, Thakur said he humbly accept the people’s mandate and the party worked hard under senior leadership but the results didn’t go in BJP’s favour.

The CM congratulated winning candidates and said the party will try to learn from defeat and in democracy, sometimes you win and you lose on other occasions.

“We will analysis the results and discuss the outcome of the bypolls with party leaders and also with workers to prepare a strategy to secure BJP’s win in the 2022 assembly elections,” he said, adding they will try to improve upon the shortcomings of bypolls.

He stated that price rise was an issue that was used to its advantage by the opposition Congress party and the issue might have contributed to the ruling party’s defeat in the bypolls.

He thanked the party leadership for support and further stated that some of the party workers, as per the initial reports, worked against the party despite asserting support to party candidates in the polls.

“There are many contenders for party tickets during elections but only one candidate gets it, hence the dissidents must consider these situations,” he added.

State Congress chief Kuldeep Singh Rathore termed the victory in bypolls as a win of people’s power over money power that was used by the ruling party and said the BJP had lost the faith of the electorate.

“We have secured victory in 12 assembly segments out of the total 20 segments (17 assembly segments in Mandi Lok Sabha seat) where bypolls were held.

We demand that Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur should tender resignation and the Election Commission should conduct elections in the state immediately as the ruling party has lost people’s mandate,” he added.

He also accused the Election Commission of working under the influence of the ruling party and said the electoral body didn’t function impartially in the bypolls.

“We have submitted many complaints and have demanded action against BJP leaders for misusing government machinery and use of illicit means but no impartial action was taken on our complaints,” he added.

It is worth mentioning here that the Congress party secured victory on all four seats including the Mandi Lok Sabha seat and assembly segments of Arki, Fatehpur, and Jubbal Kotkhai for which the election process for bypolls was completed today.

The bypolls in Himachal were necessitated due to the deaths of former CM Virbhadra Singh (Arki assembly constituency), two-time MP Ramswaroop Sharma (Mandi Lok Sabha seat), ex-minister Sujan Singh Pathania (Fatehpur AC), and former minister Narinder SBragta (Jubbal Kotkhai AC).