New Delhi: BJP rebel-turned-independent Kripal Parmar, who got a call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to contest the assembly polls from Himachal’s Fatehpur seat, lost to Congress’s Bhawani Singh Pathania on Thursday.
While Bhavani Singh got 33,238 votes, BJP’s Rakesh Pathania, who came second, got 25,884 votes. Bhawani Singh is the son of Sujan Singh Pathania, whose death had led to the bypoll in October last year. His son also won the by-election to Bhavani.
Parmar, a former Rajya Sabha MP who resigned as vice-president of the BJP’s Himachal Pradesh unit in November last year, had rebelled against the party after being denied a ticket from the Fatehpur constituency – first in a bypoll last year and then in this assembly election. He was among over 17 rebel candidates who had planned to contest as independents after being denied tickets by the BJP. He got 2,811 votes on Thursday.
Last month, Parmar came into limelight after an audio-video clip of his conversation with PM Modi went viral on social media. The PM was trying to stop him from contesting the assembly elections.
“I have every right on you. I will not listen… My Kripal cannot do this.’
Parmar, on the other hand, was heard alleging that Nadda “humiliated” him for 15 years.
He also told the PM that his call should have come two days ago, as the last day for withdrawal of nominations was over. After hanging up, an angry Modi said, “Accha bhaiya, achcha ji. (Okay brother, okay)”.