Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates on Wednesday won both Dharamshala and Pachhad assembly segments in Himachal by-elections for which voting was held on 21 October.

However, the bypoll proved tough battle for BJP as both party rebels, Dyal Pyari and Rakesh Kumar Chaudhary gave a tough fight and managed to secure 11,698 and 16,740 votes respectively.

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Chaudhary even managed to push Congress to third place in Dharmashala and stood second in terms of votes polled. Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Devesh Kumar said BJP candidate Vishal Nehria won by 6758 votes by defeating his nearest rival Rakesh Kumar Chaudhary (Independent).

In Pachhad segment, BJP candidate Reena Kashyap defeated her nearest rival Gangu Ram Musafir of Congress by 2808 votes. In Dharamshala segment, Vishal Nehria of BJP got 23,498 votes which was 44.41 percent of total votes and party rebel Rakesh Kumar Chaudhary, who contested polls as an independent candidate got 16,740 votes which was 31.64 percent of total votes.

Vijay Inder Karan of Congress remained at third place, securing 8212 votes with 15.52 percent of total votes. The remaining four Independent candidates in Dharamshala, Nisha Katoch got 435 votes, Puneesh Sharma 2345 votes, Manohar Lal Dhiman 887 votes and Subhash Chand Shukla 368 votes.

A total 52, 915 votes were polled which includes 159 postal votes besides 430 voters were polled under NOTA.

In Pachhad, Reena Kashyap of BJP got 22,167 votes which was 40.85 percent of total votes while her nearest rival Gangu Ram Musafir of Congress secured 19359 votes which was 35.68 percent of total votes.

Remaining three Independent candidates of Pachhad segment, namely Dayal Pyari, BJP rebel got 11698 votes, Pawan Kumar 428 votes and Surender Pal 292 votes.

A total of 54, 262 votes were polled which includes 221 Postal votes besides 318 voters chose NOTA.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur thanked the people of Pachhad and Dharamshala assembly constituencies for electing the BJP candidates in the bye-elections.

The Chief Minister said the people of these constituencies have expressed faith and confidence in the policies and programmes of the present BJP government which was committed for the welfare of the people and development of the state.

He also thanked the party workers for relentlessly ensuring the victory of the party candidates in these by-elections. Thakur said that the state government had strived hard to come up to the aspirations and expectations of the people during its last about two years.

He said that various welfare and employment-oriented schemes have been initiated by the government. Thakur said that the BJP government at the Centre under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, national BJP chief and Union Home minister Amit Shah and working national BJP chief J P Nadda was working for the welfare of the people of the country to ameliorate the conditions of the people.