Shimla: On Wednesday, polling for the by-elections in three Assembly constituencies – Dehra, Nalagarh, and Hamirpur – began across 315 polling stations in the state of Himachal Pradesh.
A total of 13 candidates are in the fray for these seats, with 2.59 lakh registered electorates expected to cast their votes by 6 p.m. These bypolls have been held to fill the vacancies created by the resignation of the incumbent members. The results for these elections will be announced on July 13. In Dehra, the stakes are high for Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, as his wife Kamlesh Thakur is making her electoral debut.
The Congress has never won this seat, which was carved out after delimitation in 2010. With the main opposition BJP fielding strong candidates in Nalagarh and Hamirpur, where they have previously won as independents, the contest is expected to be intense.
The Congress has recently won four out of six bypoll seats, giving stability to their government in the state, after losing all four Lok Sabha seats to the BJP for the third time in a row.
