HimVani

Shimla: Bharatiya Janata Party’s Anurag Thakur, who is son of Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, defeated his nearest rival O P Rattan of Congress by a record margin of 1,74,666 votes to maintain the party’s hold over Hamirpur parliamentary constituency.

Earlier, BJP’s Suresh Chandel had had won the seat by 1.27 lakh votes in 1999.Anurag polled 3,74,339 votes against Rattan’s 1,99,673. Amin Chand, an independent, secured 6484 votes. Rattan Lal Kaundal of Bahujan Shakti Party, a breakaway group of the state BSP, managed 4,937 votes, losing his security deposit. The by-election, second in a year, was necessitated after Dhumal quit the seat on becoming the Chief Minister last December.