Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jairam Thakur handed over his resignation to the Governor on Thursday.
The Congress appeared to be heading to achieve majority in Himachal Pradesh as it surged ahead of the BJP, winning 16 seats and leading in 23 others.
“I have handed over my resignation to the Governor. Will never stop working for the development of people. We need to analyse things. There were some issues that changed the direction of the results. I will go to Delhi if they call us,” the outgoing CM said.
According to the latest results and trends, the ruling BJP had registered a win on 13 seats and was leading in as many others.
Three Independents have also emerged victorious.
Himachal Pradesh has not voted any incumbent government to power since 1985.
The chief minister accepted the defeat in the hill state even as votes were being counted. The Congress was leading in a majority of 68 seats, the data from the Election Commission showed. He also took an apparent dig at the grand old party amid comments by Congress leaders on the anticipation of horse-trading of MLAs. "Their MLAs have been elected. Now it's their job to protect them. It's their job to protect the majority. " he was heard saying in a televised briefing.
Congratulating the Congress, he further said, "I hope they will deliver on the promises they made. We will continue to raise issues of the public. In this election, another important thing is that the margin was very low, less than 1,000. The vote-share has a difference of just 1 per cent." On the AAP's poll performance, he said: "There was no party presence of the party.."
