E-Paper
23 new entrants in Himachal Pradesh’s 14th assembly
Of the new entrants, four belong to political families, all of them of the Congress, while 19 are those who have risen from the ranks in the party
Himachal Pradesh’s 14th assembly is a mix of experience and energy as 23 new entrants join 45 re-elected legislators in the 68-member House.
The Congress won 40 seats this time, while the BJP’s tally was reduced to 25 from 45 in 2017.
The assembly elections were held on November 12 and the results were declared on Thursday.
Of the new entrants, four belong to political families, all of them of the Congress, while 19 are those who have risen from the ranks in the party.
The Congress has the maximum 14 new faces, eight from the BJP and an Independent.
Son rise in Congress
The four newly-elected MLAs who come from political families are Neeraj Nayar, Raghubir Singh Bali, Bhuvneshwar Gaur, and Vinod Sulatnpuri.
Neeraj Nayar, who defeated BJP’s Neelam Nayar from Chamba by 7,782 votes, is the son of former minister and Congress veteran leader, late Sagar Chand Nayar.
Sagar Chand served as education minister of Himachal Pradesh between 1985 and 1990.
From Nagrota Bagwan, Raghubir Singh Bali stepped into the shoes of his father Gurmukh Singh Bali, a veteran Congress leader, who represented the constituency for four consecutive terms from 1998, 2003, 2007 and 2012. Bali Senior had lost the 2017 election to his one-time protégé Arun Kumar Kuka.
RS Bali, an AICC secretary, has the highest margin of 15,892 among all Congress MLAs and also a record in Nagrota Bagwan.
Bhuvneshwar Gaur, who defeated outgoing education minister Govind Singh Thakur to win Manali constituency, is the son of former minister Raj Krishan Gaur. Gaur Junior had unsuccessfully contested the 2012 assembly election, while the Congress denied him the ticket in 2017.
From Kasauli segment, Vinod Sultanpuri has made it to the assembly in his third attempt. The son of former six-term Shimla MP Krishan Dutt Sultanpuri defeated three-term legislator and sitting health minister Rajiv Saizal.
Vinod had narrowly lost the 2012 and 2017 by 24 and 442 votes, respectively.
Maiden election winners
Among other Congress candidates to win their maiden election are Suresh Kumar from Bhoranj, Sudarshan Singh Babloo from Chintpurni, Chander Shekhar from Dharampur, Chaitanaya Sharma from Gagret, Davinder Kumar from Kutlehar, Ajay Solanki from Nahan, Kewal Singh from Shahpur, Harish Janartha from Shimla and Kuldeep Singh Rathore from Theog.
Newly-elected Dharampur MLA Chander Shekhar started as a student leader and was the state president of Left-oriented SFI during his university days in the ’90s. He joined the Congress before the 2007 assembly election and was given the party ticket. He lost three consecutive elections to Mahender Singh Thakur in 2007, 2012 and 2017 before defeating his son Rajat Thakur in this election.
Gagret MLA Chaitanya Sharma, 28, would be the youngest member in the new assembly. Known for his philanthropic works, Chaitanya is the son of former Uttarakhand chief secretary Rakesh Sharma. He started from the grassroots, winning as zila parishad member from Bhanjal ward of Gagret in the panchayat elections last year.
Kuldeep Rathore is a former Himachal Pradesh Congress and AICC national spokesperson.
Harish Janartha was a trusted lieutenant of former chief minister Virbhadra Singh. He unsuccessfully contested the 2012 election as the Congress candidate and as an Independent in 2017.
BJP’s fresh faces
Among the eight fresh faces of the BJP is Lokender Kumar from Anni, a former student leader of the SFI and vice-president of Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla (HPU) Students’ Union. He had contested the 2017 election from Anni on the CPI(M) ticket.
Dr Janak Raj, who defeated Congress heavyweight Thakur Singh Bharmouri from ST-reserved Bharmour seat, is a neurosurgeon and has served as medical superintendent of Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla.
Trilok Jamwal, who won from BJP national president JP Nadda’s home constituency Bilaspur, is a state party general secretary, while Dhavinder Singh, who defeated Congress veteran Asha Kumari from Dalhousie, is a former district BJP president of Chamba.
Among other first-timers of the BJP are Deep Raj From Karsog, Puran Chand, a one-time protégé of Congress giant Kaul Singh Thakur, from Darang, Ranbir Nikka from Nurpur and Dalip Thakur from Sarkaghat.
