Congress candidate Pratibha Singh has registered decisive win in the Mandi parliamentary by-poll over her nearest rival BJP candidate Jai Ram Thakur with the margin of over 1.36 lakh (1,36,724) votes.
The counting of votes for Mandi parliamentary by-poll in all the 1921 counting booths began at 8 am, under tight security in the presence of observers deputed by Election Commission of India. 582249 electors exercised their franchise in two phase of voting held on June 23 and 27. About 7684 election employees were involved in whole election process. Congress candidate Pratibha Singh gets 353492 votes whereas BJP candidate Jai Ram Thakur gets only 216768. Other two candidates Subhash Mohan Snehi and Lawan Kumar get 6057 and 5932 respectively.
The Congress candidate secured lead in all the assembly segments of Mandi Parliamentary Constituency except Seraj assembly segment, which is the home constituency Jai Ram Thakur. Pratibha Singh got the highest lead of 24099 votes from Rampur in district Shimla followed by Bharmour assembly constituency from where she attained lead of 16,117 votes.
Pratibha Singh had won Mandi parliamentary in 2004 by 66,566 margins and in 1998 she was fell short by the margin of over 1.25 lakh to then BJP candidate Maheshwar Singh. Congress and BJP had campaign vigorously to woo electorates, but charisma of Virbhadra Singh prevailed over BJP campaigners.
Virbhadra Singh has thanked the Mandi parliamentary constituency voters for landslide victory of congress candidate. He said that the victory has showed that people have expressed their faith and confidence in the programmes and policies of the state Govt and said that this victory will further strengthen the resolve of the state Govt for ensuring the over all growth of the entire state irrespective of caste, creed, religion or region. He said that this victory has strengthened the emotional unity of the state and thanked the grass root level congress worker for their efforts in creating positive environment at village level which helped the voters to decide in favour of congress candidate. He also thanked the voters of the Kinnaur district who overwhelmingly voted for the congress candidate despite of the natural calamity in the region and assured them that Govt will reciprocate with same spirit for ensuring the speedy development works and undertaking massive relief and rehabilitation works in the region to bring normalcy in the area.
B.B.L. Butail, Speaker, H.P. Vidhan Sabha, Vidya Stokes, Irrigation and Public Health Minister, Kaul Singh Thakur, Health and Family Welfare Minister, G.S. Bali, Transport Minister, Sujan Singh Pathania, MPP and Power Minister, Thakur Singh Bharmouri, Forest Minister, Mukesh Agnihotri, Industries Minister, Sudhir Sharma, Urban Development Minister, Prakash Chaudhary, Excise and Taxation Minister, Dr. (Col.) Dhani Ram Shandil, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister, Anil Sharma, Rural Development Minister, Jagat Singh Negi, Deputy Speaker, H.P. Vidhan Sabha, Rajesh Dharmani, Vinay Kumar and Neeraj Bharati, Jagjivan Pal, Rakesh Kalia, Nand Lal, Rohit Thakur, Sohan Lal and Inder Dutt Lakhanpal Chief Parliamentary Secretaries have congratulated Virbhadra Singh and Pratibha Singh for winning Mandi Lok Sabha seat.
BJP candidate Jai Ram Thakur also thanked electorates and party workers for their support. Thakur congratulate winner Congress candidate Pratibha Singh and advised her to fulfill her poll promises.
