Mandi: Riding high on the sympathy card, Congress candidate Pratibha Singh has succeeded to win the Mandi parliamentary by-elections by a thin margin.

She has defeated her nearest rival veteran Kargil war hero Khushal Singh of BJP with a margin of 7,490 votes.

Congress candidate Pratibha Singh polled 3,69,565 votes and BJP candidate Brigadier Khushal Chand Thakur got 3,62,075 votes.

Ambika Shyam of Rashtriya Lokniti Party 3617 votes, Munshi Ram Thakur of Himachal Jankranti Party 1,262 whereas Subhash Mohan Snehi got 1772 votes.

Surprisingly 12,661 have opted for the NOTA option, which is the highest in the state so far.

A two-time Member of Parliament, Pratibha Singh had lost the seat in the 2014 Parliamentary election to BJP’s Ram Swaroop Sharma when the Modi wave was high.