Himachal Pradesh election result: Candidates who lost the battle by 1% votes

New Delhi, Dec 09: After the BJP conceded defeat in Himachal Pradesh on Thursday, Prime Minister said that his party lost the elections by just one per cent of votes to Congress and it was a sign of voters' affection for the party.

"The victory and loss in this election has been decided by less than 1 per cent of the votes. Never has the state seen such a low difference between victory and defeat. Governments have changed every five years but the difference has always been 5 to 7 per cent. This time it was less than 1 per cent which means people tried to ensure our win," a media report quoted him as saying.

It is true since many candidates from both BJP and Congress lost the polls by very narrow margins. BJP's Anil Dhiman lost to Congress' Suresh Kumar by just 60 votes in Bhoranj. While the former secured 24,719 votes, the latter got 24,779 votes.

Congress Rajinder Singh won by 399 votes in Sujanpur constituency. Whereas the party's Harshwardhan Chauhan defeated BJP candidate Baldev Singh by only 382 votes in Shillai constituency.

Congress candidate Nand Lal won by 567 votes in Rampur, defeating BJP's Kaul Singh. In Darang constituency, BJP candidate Puran Chand defeated Congress' Kaul Singh by 618 votes.

Similarly, Congress' Kuldeep Singh Pathania defeated BJP's Vikram Singh by 1,567 votes and BJP candidate Inder Singh managed to win Balh constituency by a margin of 1,307 votes. BJP candidate Bikram Singh emerged victorious in Jaswan-Pragpur seat by 1,789 votes. Congress candidate Ravi Thakur won Lahaul and Spiti seat by a margin of 1,616 votes. In Nahan, Congress' Ajay Solanki won by 1,639 votes.

Interestingly, Rebels played a spoilsport for both the BJP and Congress in 12 out of the 68 assembly segments in Himachal Pradesh.

The Congress on Thursday won 40 seats in the 68-member Assembly in the hill state which maintained its tradition of not voting any incumbent government to power since 1985.

State party president Pratibha Singh is considered a key frontrunner for the chief minister's post, closely followed by former party chief Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu and outgoing CLP leader Mukesh Agnihotri.

With inputs from agencies.