The ruling BJP on Tuesday wrested the prestigious Rohru seat in the Assembly by-election — after more than three decades — from the Congress, marginalising Union Minister for Steel Virbhadra Singh in his pocketborough.

The winner, BJP’s state general secretary Khushi Ram Balnatah, who had lost four successive elections to Virbhadra, finally made it to the Assembly, defeating Congress candidate Manjit Singh Thakur by a margin of 8,473 votes. Rohru has been reserved for Scheduled Caste candidate as per the Delimitation Commission’s recommendations.

“The people of Rohru have voted for Virbhadra Singh five times as they believed that he would bring development. This time, they reposed their faith in me knowing that after Virbhadra’s exit, only I could look after the area better than anyone else as there would be a BJP government for the next three years,” Balnatah told The Indian Express.

What made the BJP’s task easy in Rohru is not the issue of development alone, the Congress infighting also helped it. Virbhadra had wanted the ticket for his wife Pratibha Singh, and the Block Congress unit and the District Congress Committee (rural) headed by Vidya Sagar, Virbhadra’s staunch supporter, had recommended her name.

The BJP, however, suffered a jolt elsewhere as its candidate Baldev Raj Chaudhry lost Jawali Assembly seat, vacated by Dr Rajan Sushant, who has been elected to the Lok Sabha.