BJP wins both Dharamshala, Pachhad seats in Himachal bypolls (Eds: Updating figures) '

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, who was polled 22,167 votes, defeated her nearest rival Gangu Ram Musafir (19,359) of the Congress by a margin of 2,808 votes.

Rebel BJP leader Dayal Pyari, who contested as an independent, finished a distant third with 11,698 votes. In Pachhad, Suresh Kashyap of the BJP had defeated his nearest rival and former minister Musafir with a margin of 6,427 votes in 2017.

The BJP's victory margin has reduced this time as Dayal Pyari got nearly 11,700 votes. In Dharamshala, BJP's Vishal Nehria (23,498) defeated his nearest rival Rakesh Kumar (16,740) by 6,758 votes.

Kumar was a BJP rebel and contested as an independent. Vijay Inder Karan (8,212) of the Congress lost his security deposits as he failed to get the required one-sixth of the valid polled votes.

In the 2017 Assembly elections, the victory margin of Kishan Kapoor of the BJP over Sudhir Sharma of the Congress was 2,997 votes in Dharamshala. The byelections to the Pachhad and Dharamshala assembly seats were necessitated after sitting BJP MLAs Suresh Kashyap and Kishan Kapoor were elected to the Lok Sabha.