BJP retains Hamirpur parliamentary seat

Hamirpur, June 5 (UNI) The BJP today retained the Hamirpur parliamentary seat with its candidate and former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal winning the elections with by a huge margin.

Mr Dhumal humbled his Congress rival and state Forest Minister Ram Lal Thakur by 80,059 votes in the parliamentary by-polls following which Mr Thakur resigned from the state Cabinet owning moral responsibility for the party's defeat.

The former Chief Minister polled 3,82,128 votes as against 3,02,069 received by Mr Thakur, who has lost the elections from this constituency for the third successive term, out of a total of 7,04,447 valid votes polled.

While the BJP led in 15 assembly segments out of a total of 17 assembly segments, which constitutes the parliamentary seat, the Congress led in two constituencies of Santoshgarh in Una district and Kot Kehloor in Bilaspur district.

Mr Dhumal's lead from his Bamsan assembly constituency was 20,586 alone after polling 31,415 votes as against 10,829 polled by Mr Thakur.

The BJP leader maintained his led over the Congress candidate in the postal votes too by getting 1,893 votes as against 1,434 votes received by his rival, the Returning Officer said.

He said four independents - Des Raj, Prem Chand, Sabardeen and Subhash Chand Sharma - forfeited their deposits after polling 4,205, 1,601, 4,485 and 8,959 votes respectively.

The by-polls to the Hamirpur seat were held after Lok Sabha Speaker expelled BJP MP Suresh Chandel following his involvement in the ''cash for query scam'' following a sting operation by a private television.

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