CHANDIGARH: The fate of the 15-month-old Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led Congress government in Himachal Pradesh now depends on the outcome of the assembly bypolls to the six seats.According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), voting for the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls will be held simultaneously on June 1.On Saturday, the ECI announced simultaneous bypolls in the six assembly segments of Dharamsala in Kangra, Sujanpur and Barsar in Hamirpur, Gagret in Una, Kutlehar and Lahaul-Spiti.The bye-elections were necessitated following the disqualification of six MLAs — Sudhir Sharma from Dharamsala, Rajinder Rana from Sujanpur, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal from Barsar, Ravi Thakur from Lahaul-Spiti, Chaitnaya Sharma from Gagret and Devender Bhutto from Kutlehar. With the Congress’s strength in the state assembly being reduced to 34, it will require two more seats to save its government from collapsing.As the BJP has 25 MLAs, the support of three Independent MLAs — Hoshiyar Singh from Dehra, KL Thakur from Nalagarh and Ashish Sharma from Hamirpur – is a must to win all the six seats. If the BJP wins all the six seats, its strength in the assembly will rise to 31 and with three independents on its side, the total number will be 34:34.Thus, the Congress is set to focus more on the assembly bypoll as its result will determine its government’s survival than winning any of the four Lok Sabha seats.
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