In Hamirpur, Dhumal’s home district, the Congress retained only one of the five seats. In the Sirmaur district, bordering Uttarakhand, the Congress won four of the five seats. Kush Parmar, son of Himachal Pradesh’s first chief minister Dr Y.S. Parmar, won the Nahan seat, defeating Shyama Sharma of the BJP.

Ironically, the Congress, which wanted elections to three Assembly seats in the tribal belt to be held with rest of the state, lost all three to the BJP. The elections to these seats were held even before BJP had projected Dhumal as its chief ministerial candidate.

BJP cadres broke into celebrations, but it had some big losers too: Radha Raman Shastri, a former Speaker, lost from Chopal; and Shayma Sharma, a former minister, was defeated by Kush Parmar.

Its major winners included J P Nadda, Krishan Kumar, Mohinder Singh, Roop Singh Thakur, Narinder Bragta, Rajan Sushant, Ramesh Dhawala, all former ministers, Gulab Singh Thakur, former Assembly Speaker, Suresh Bhardwaj, former state BJP president, and Jai Ram Thakur, state BJP chief. CM Virbhadra Singh later said the anti-incumbency factor was key to the Congress defeat. He said he was the first to call up and congratulate Dhumal and wish him a successful five-year tenure.