BJP wins both Dharamshala, Pachhad seats in Himachal bypolls

The ruling BJP on Thursday retained both Dharamshala and Pachhad seats in Himachal Pradesh where bypolls were held earlier this week.

In Pachhad, Reena Kashyap of the BJP defeated her nearest rival former minister Gangu Ram Musafir of the Congress by a margin of 2,742 votes.

Rebel BJP candidate Dayal Pyari, who contested as an independent candidate, finished a distant third with 1,1651 votes. The BJP's victory margin has been reduced as Dayal Pyari got over 11000 votes. 

In Dharamshala, BJP's Vishal Nehria defeated his nearest rival Rakesh Kumar by a margin of 6,758 votes. Kumar was a BJP rebel and contested as an independent candidate.

Vijay Inder Karan of the Congress lost his security deposit as he failed to get even the required one-sixth of total polled valid votes.

In the 2017 Assembly elections, the victory margin of Kishan Kapoor of the BJP over Sudhir Sharma of the Congress was of 2,997 votes in Dharamshala.

The by-elections to Pachhad and Dharamshala assembly seats were necessitated after sitting BJP MLAs Suresh Kashyap and Kishan Kapoor were elected to the Lok Sabha.