Anuradha Rana defeated BJP rebel and Independent candidate, Ram Lal Markanda by a margin of 1960 votes, while BJP nominee Ravi Thakur finished third in the tribal segment.
Congress nominee, Anuradha Rana defeated her nearest rival and former BJP minister, Ram Lal Markanda, who contested as an independent in the tribal Assembly segment of Lahaul & Spiti with 1960 votes in the Assembly by-polls held on June 1.
With this, Lahaul & Spiti has its first female MLA in 52 years.
After Lata Thakur, who had won the Assembly election on a Congress ticket in 1972 and had later died in 1976 in a road accident, no party fielded a woman candidate in the Assembly polls all these years.
Being the Zila Parishad Chairman in Lahaul & Spiti, Rana, who got the ticket in dramatic political circumstances after the Congress rebellion in the state, also becomes the second tribal woman to become MLA in HP, which has three tribal segments, Lahaul & Spiti, Kinnaur and Bharmour.
The BJP nominee, Ravi Thakur finished third in the keen contest.
Rana from Congress got 9414 votes, Independent candidate Markanda got 7454 votes, while BJP’s Ravi Thakur polled only 3049 votes in his favour.
Lahaul Spiti is a sparsely populated constituency with around 25000 voters.
The local Congressmen this time had got together in Lahaul & Spiti against the former BJP minister, Ram Lal Markanda, who after being denied a ticket by BJP to accommodate disqualified Congress rebel, Ravi Thakur, had tried to enter the Congress party for a ticket.
Markanda however gave tough competition to the Congress nominee and was leading till seven rounds initially.
The scales tilted in favour of Congress nominee Rana in the end when vote counting was done from the Spiti valley of Lahaul & Spiti.
“We are happy at her victory. Lahaul & Spiti has got a woman MLA after a long time. This will surely give us all a strong voice in the corridors of power,” said some local women from Keylong on the phone.
Rana happens to be the lone woman Congress MLA in Congress Legislative Party this time.
In her campaign, although her appeal talked about Congress having given a ticket to a woman this time, she had also tried to convince the people by mentioning that they would be at an advantage if they voted for the party already ruling in the state.
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