Shimla:

Congress candidate Pratibha Singh on Sunday won the Mandi Lok Sabha by-election, defeating her nearest BJP rival Jai Ram Thakur by a massive margin of over 1.36 lakh votes.

The polling was held in sixteen Assembly segments on June 23, while the exercise was held in rain-hit Kinnaur tribal segment on June 27. Repoll in one booth was held yesterday.

As many as 5,82,081 voters out of 11,13,938 voters cast their votes of which Pratibha Singh, wife of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, polled 60.67 per cent votes while Jai Ram Thakur got 37.24 per cent votes.

Pratibha had won this seat in 2004 also by a margin of 66,566 votes, but her husband had registered victory by a slender margin of 14,000 votes in 2009.

Thanking the voters, the Chief Minister said it was the victory of ideology and leadership of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi.

The victory showed that people have expressed faith and confidence in the programmes and policies of the state government and it will further strengthen the resolve to ensure overall growth of the entire state irrespective of caste, creed, religion or region.

He also thanked Congress workers for their efforts in creating positive environment at village level.

source:http://zeenews.india.com