In Anuradha Rana, Himachal Congress gets its first woman MLA, Assembly second
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By winning the Lahaul-Spiti Assembly byelection, Anuradha Rana has become the first Congress woman MLA in the current party set up and the second in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly.
During the 2022 Assembly elections, BJP’s Reena Kashyap was the only woman MLA.
She was elected from Pachhad (SC) constituency in Sirmaur district. Now, the number of woman MLAs in the House has increased to two.
The Lahaul-Spiti Assembly constituency has got a woman MLA after 52 years. Anuradha defeated independent candidate and former BJP minister Ram Lal Markanda by 1,960 votes. Her mentor and outgoing MLA Ravi Thakur, a former Congress MLA who was fighting on the BJP ticket following his disqualification from the Assembly, was relegated to the third position. Anuradha got 9,414 votes, Markanda 7,454 and Thakur 3,049.
The hard work of Horticulture Minister Jagat Singh Negi and CPS Sunder Singh Thakur is learnt to have paid off for Anuradha’s victory. In 1972, Lata Thakur was elected an MLA from Lahaul-Spiti on the Congress ticket. After 52 years, the Congress bet on Anuradha and she won.
There is an atmosphere of happiness among the people of the tribal Lahaul-Spiti district following her victory. Though independent candidate Markanda was leading by 118 votes over Anuradha, he lagged behind in 29 booths of Spiti. As soon as Anuradha came close to victory with a lead, a large number of Congress workers started gathering in Keylong, the district headquarters.
The BJP candidate was already at the third position and could not even get 200 votes in several rounds. As soon as the EVMs of Tod, Tinan and Gahar Valley were opened, Anuradha started leading.
In her victory message, Anuradha said development works in the constituency would be completed in a short time. “The development of Lahaul-Spiti district will be accelerated by respecting each and every vote. Every effort will be made to live up to the trust the people of Lahaul-Spiti have shown in me,” she said.
