CPI (M) loses its only seat in Himachal Pradesh as candidate falls to fourth position

SHIMLA: As the counting of votes for the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections entered its final stage, the Congress has secured its victory giving a hard blow to the incumbent BJP. The right-wing party managed to win only 26 seats while the Congress have risen to power with 39 seats. Also, in the meantime, the CPM suffered a severe setback as they lost the only seat they won in the 2017 assembly elections. CPM has lost in the Theog constituency in Himachal's Shimla district. CPM candidate Rakesh Singha was defeated by Congress's Kuldeep Singh.

Other opponents were BJP candidate Ajay Shyam, AAP candidate Attar Singh Chandel and independent candidate Indu Verma. Rakesh Singha fell to the fourth position behind Ajay Shyam and Indu Verma. Only around 12,000 votes were cast in favour of the CPM.

In the last election, Rakesh Singha got into the Legislative Assembly by defeating BJP's Rakesh Verma by securing around 25,000 votes. He got 42.18 percent of the votes and had a majority of 1983 votes that day. In 2012, when elections were held for the Shimla Municipal Corporation, the CPM won the posts of mayor and deputy mayor.