SUKHU COMES OUT STRONGER

In mountainous Himachal Pradesh, dark monsoon clouds may have resulted in torrential rains, but the political clouds surrounding the chair of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu appear to have been dispelled for now.

- Anilesh S. Mahajan

In the recent bypolls held in three seats on July 10—Dehra, Nalagarh and Hamirpur—the Congress won two, and increased its tally once again to 40 seats in the 68-member assembly. Kamlesh Thakur, Sukhu’s wife, won from Dehra and Hardeep Singh Bawa won from Nalagarh for the Grand Old Party. The BJP managed to retain Hamirpur, with Ashish Sharma, the former independent MLA who joined the saffron party, holding on by 1,571 votes. The BJP’s assembly numbers have risen to 28.