Himachal goes to Congress, BJP concedes defeat

Shimla, Dec 20: In the hill state of Himachal Pradesh, the BJP’s Prem Kumar Dhumal government prepared to exit office for the Congress that was poised to comfortably win 36 seats in the 68-member assembly.

The BJP, which had got 41 seats in 2007, was down to 26.

The Congress welcomed the "thumping victory" in Himachal Pradesh.

"We are very confident of forming a government," Congress veteran and former chief minister Virbhadra Singh said jubilantly as celebrations went on outside the party headquarters in Shimla with supporters bursting firecrackers.

Virbhadra Singh, who led the party’s campaign in Himachal Pradesh, was Thursday elected to the assembly by a record margin of around 20,000 votes.

Election officials said he defeated his Ishwar Rohal of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from Shimla (Rural).

Virbhadra Singh, widely seen as the chief ministerial candidate, polled 28,892 votes while Rohal got 8,892.

The state Congress chief contested from Shimla (Rural), a new constituency, as his bastion Rohru in Shimla district is now reserved for Dalits.

Dhumal, in his home constituency Hamirpur, accepted defeat and congratulated the Congress.

BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Chandan Mitra added that the Congress had "won fair and square" in Himachal and the BJP would have to think where its strategy failed.