Congress Wins High Stake Bypolls In Himachal Pradesh, Stabilises Government

The Congress has won 4 out of 6 bypoll seats, after 6 sitting Congress MLAs rebelled and switched to BJP.

The Congress party is set to win four of the six seats up for by polls in Himachal Pradesh, giving a new lease of life to the Congress government in the state. There had been a power-tussle in the hill state for four months ever since the BJP won the Rajya Sabha elections in February after six Congress and three Independent MLAs cross-voted in favour of the BJP candidate. The Congress party, which had won the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections in 2022, by securing 40 of the 68 seats in the assembly, fell down to just 34 MLAs after this defection. However, the overall assembly strength also changed as the six seats held by these MLAs were declared vacant, bringing down the effective strength of the House from 68 to 62. Since then, the ruling party was standing on a precarious terrain.