Himachal CM's High Stakes: Wife's Electoral Debut in Dehra Bypoll"

High-stakes involved here in the direct face-off between the two traditional rivals, Congress and BJP, and more so for Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu in the bypolls slated for Wednesday. For one of the three Assembly seats, Sukhvinder Sukhu has a special cause for concern because his wife, Kamlesh Thakur, will be taking her initial steps in politics.

Kamlesh Thakur is the candidate from Dehra, a Kangra district constituency carved out after 2010 delimitation, which has never been won by Congress. The other two constituencies are Hamirpur and Nalagarh.

Chief Minister Sukhu has focused his campaigning on Dehra where his wife Kamlesh Thakur is contesting against BJP candidate Hoshiyar Singh. Singh had won as Independent in 2022 and is contesting for the third consecutive victory.

In 2012, BJP's Ravinder Singh Ravi was elected from Dehra.

Sukhu, a four-time MLA from Nadaun in the neighbouring Hamirpur district, also spoke of local roots of his wife to woo the voters, saying that she belonged to the village Chamnal falling in the Dehra constituency.
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The main opposition, the BJP which had won all four Lok Sabha seats in Himachal Pradesh in the recently held parliamentary elections, has fielded K.L. Thakur for Nalagarh and Ashish Sharma from Hamirpur. Thakur will be facing Congress candidate Hardeep Bawa while BJP's Sharma will be testing his end against Congress' Push.

Both K.L. Thakur and Ashish Sharma had won as Independents in 2022 and joined the BJP earlier during the beginning of this year. They all had resigned during the last month of March from the Assembly. Their resignations were finally accepted on June 4, which led to these bypolls.

A total of 315 polling booths has been set up for holding the b bypolls in Dehra, Hamirpur and Nalagarh, while polling parties have been forwarded to 217 booths.

That count of the votes is scheduled for July 13,.

The Congress had only earlier won four out of six bypolls on June 4, which came as a substantial relief for the government, otherwise looking under severe pressure from the opposition. However, they had to again face defeat by losing all the four Lok Sabha seats to the BJP for the third consecutive time.

While taking in the four new legislators, the Congress got its number in the hall of the state government increased by four. The party still 38, while that of BJP 27, out of a House of 65-member.