Cong candidate Anuradha Rana wins Lahaul and Spiti bypoll

Shimla: Congress candidate Anuradha Rana on Tuesday won the Lahaul and Spiti bypolls by defeating Independent candidate and former BJP minister Ram Lal Markanda by a margin of 1,960 votes.

It was after 52 years that a woman contested elections from Lahaul and Spiti and Rana became the second woman to win from the assembly segment.

Rana polled 9,414 votes against 7,454 votes polled by Markanda while BJP candidate Ravi Thakur stood third with 3,049 votes.

This assembly constituency is the largest, covering 25 per cent of the total area of Himachal with the lowest number of the electorate (25,967).

The voter turnout was 75.09 per cent.

Lahaul and Spiti are one of the six assembly constituencies which had fallen vacant after six Congress rebels voted for BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan in Rajya Sabha polls and were later disqualified by the speaker for defying the whip by not remaining present in the House during voting on cut motions and passing of Budget.