Himachal Pradesh election: Here is how rebel candidates thwarted BJP's bid to retain power

Even as Congress won the Himachal Pradesh election, the rebel candidates played a decisive role in scuttling the BJP's chances of retaining power in the state. 3 BJP rebels who were denied tickets and contested as Independents- Ashish Sharma, Hoshyar Singh and KL Thakur won from Hamirpur, Dehra and Nalagarh respectively. Moreover, the Election Commission's data showed that rebels secured more votes than Congress' victory margin over BJP in 9 constituencies. While two of them were associated with Congress, the rest belonged to BJP.

This essentially implies that the BJP's prospects of potentially winning these seats would have increased manifold via better ticket distribution and winning over rebels. If 10 of these seats had gone to the saffron party's kitty, it could have formed the government once again. At present, BJP is just 10 short of the majority mark of 35 in the 68-member Assembly whereas Congress candidates won in 40 constituencies. 

Seats where Congress defeated BJP: 

Congress wrests Himachal Pradesh 

In line with its tradition of changing governments after every term since 1985, Himachal witnessed Congress wresting power from BJP. The state recorded its highest-ever vote share of 75.6% in the Assembly elections held on November 12. This increased hopes in the Congress camp considering that it also won the by-election to the Assembly seats of Fatehpur, Arki and Jubbal-Kotkhai and the Lok Sabha constituency of Mandi last year. The fact that AAP also didn't up a spirited campaign implied that the election turned out to be a bipolar contest between BJP and Congress.

Despite former Congress president Rahul Gandhi's absence from the campaign, the party managed to win a clear majority by bagging 40 out of 68 seats. On the other hand, BJP was reduced to a mere 25 seats even as CM Jairam Thakur won from Seraj by 38,183 votes- the highest victory margin for any candidate. Interestingly, the vote share difference between Congress and BJP was only 0.90%. While AAP couldn't open its account, 3 Independents registered a victory. The major upsets included the defeat of 8 Ministers and 6-time Congress MLA Asha Kumari.