Congress acceding defeat in the by-poll held in Dharamshala and Pachhad will embark on an exercise to analyze the reasons for defeat.

Addressing media persons on Thursday, Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee Chief Kuldeep Singh Rathore said that his party will soon form a committee to assess the outcome of the elections and analyze the defeat, after which the committee will submit its report to the state Congress.

He congratulated the winning candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party and also the public for the success of the democratic process.

The drubbing in the Dharamshala by-poll, he attributed to some shortcomings that included delay in finalising the candidate after the candidate initially proposed by the party had declined to contest the by-poll.

However, he lauded the performance of the party in the Pachhad by-poll and maintained that the party had given a tough fight to the BJP which won owing to its government in the state.

“Furthermore, the BJP used all kinds of tactics even misusing state government machinery and even violated the Model Code of Conduct. The Election Commission remained a mute spectator throughout the entire process, instead of taking stern action,” he charged, adding that despite repeated complaints of violation of Model Code of Conduct with documental proofs, least it did was to issue notices to the Irrigation and Public Health Minister Mahender Singh and Vidhan Sabha Speaker Rajeev Bindal.

No one knows what reply these BJP leaders have given, he rued.

Despite all kinds of tactics adopted in the Pachhad assembly segment by BJP, Congress performed well, as BJP managed to win the elections with a less margin. Even compared to the Lok Sabha elections when the margin was above 17,000 the performance this time has been very good as the BJP candidate won by only 2600 votes.

This reflects that the Congress worked hard to give a tough fight and that he himself had camped in both the constituencies for campaigning and witnessed the party workers had worked with enthusiasm, he added.

The Congress in future is also going to play a pro-active role of strong opposition and take to the masses the wrongdoings of the BJP government, said Rathore.

Replying to the question of BJP rebel Dayal Payari giving a triangular fight, he said that the rebel had in fact dented the prospects of the Congress candidate, a seven-time MLA Gangu Ram Musafir who also hails from the area of the rebel, which led to the division of votes.