Shimla, Jun 4 (PTI) The BJP's sitting MP in the Shimla parliamentary seat Suresh Kashyap defeated Congress' Vinod Sultanpuri by 91,451 votes on Tuesday.

Kashyap polled 5,19,748 votes while Vinod Sultanpuri, the MLA from Kasauli Assembly seat and the son of six-time MP from Shimla K D Sultanpuri, managed to get 4,28, 297 votes.

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The former state BJP chief told PTI that the results seemed to be on the lines of exit poll prediction and people had decided to make Narendra Modi prime minister for the third time in a row.

In the 2022 polls in Himachal Pradesh, the Congress won 13 Assembly segments under the Shimla parliamentary constituency while the BJP could manage only three.

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However, in the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress could not secure a lead in most of the assembly segments even though the party had given the lion's share in the state ministry as well as three chief parliamentary secretaries and deputy speaker of Vidhan Sabha from these segments.

Moreover, the Samyukt Kisan Manch (SKM), claiming to have the support of 27 apple, stone fruit and vegetable growers associations, had extended its support to the Congress.

Hike in import duty on apples, poor condition of roads, frequent landslides, hydropower projects, illegal mining, manufacturing of sub-standard drugs and lack of adequately developed industrial infrastructure were the key issues of this constituency.

However, Kashyap's poll campaign banked heavily on PM Narendra Modi's charisma as well as development projects in the region, including the sanctioning of projects worth Rs 27,000 crore.

The Shimla parliamentary constituency, which came into existence in 1967 after the merger of the hilly areas of Punjab, has remained reserved for SC since its inception and out of 14 Lok Sabha polls held since then, the Congress won nine times, BJP thrice and Janta Party and Himachal Vikas Congress (HVC) once each.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)