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All sitting Himachal Congress MLAs likely to get tickets
The names of all the 20 sitting Congress legislators in Himachal Pradesh were cleared in a Pradesh Election Committee (PEC) meeting held at Chhattisgarh Bhawan in Delhi on Monday
The names of all the 20 sitting Congress legislators in Himachal Pradesh were cleared in a Pradesh Election Committee (PEC) meeting held at Chhattisgarh Bhawan in Delhi on Monday. HP assembly elections are due in November-end. Thus all the sitting MLAs are likely to get party tickets to contest, said in the know-how of the matter.
Putting an end to all the speculations, the main signatory of G-23 and former Union minister Anand Sharma also attended the crucial meeting.
Sharma had recently resigned as chairman of the steering committee for the Himachal Pradesh assembly election days after Ghulam Nabi Azad resigned from a key party post in Jammu and Kashmir, signalling a revolt in the grand old party.
Sharma had met Azad at his residence in New Delhi giving rise to speculations about his future plans. Sharma had resigned from the chairmanship of Himachal’s Congress steering committee following his differences with Rajya Sabha members and the All India Congress Committee in charge of Himachal affairs Rajeev Shukla. Sharma was peeved over not being consulted over party affairs in the state. After four hours of deliberations, the 29-member Pradesh Election Committee (PEC), unanimously decided to clear the names of all the 20 legislators. Congress had the strength of 22 legislators in the 68-member house but two of its legislators -- Pawan Kajal from Kangra, who was the party’s working president, had joined BJP along with Congress legislator from Nalagarh Lakhwinder Singh Rana.
After consultations, Congress also cleared singles names of AICC secretaries Sudhir Sharma from Dharmshala, Rajesh Dharmani from Ghuwarwein and RS Bali, son of former Congress strongman GS Bali from Nagrota Bagwan. The four AICC secretary Anirudh Singh is already a sitting legislator from Kasumpti. The panel also cleared the name of Pradesh Congress committee president Kaul Singh Thakur, who also happened to be a member of the Pradesh Election Committee. PEC also cleared the name of Congress general secretary Vinod Sultanpuri from the Kasauli assembly seat which is represented by health minister Rajiv Saizal. Sultanputri lost the 2017 assembly elections to Saizal by 442 votes, while he lost the 2012 elections by just 24 votes. Vinod Sultanpuri is the son of six-time Lok Sabha member Krishan Dutt Sultanpuri.
On 15 assembly segments, there was a single name, while the rest of the assembly segments had three and more names. There were many seats which were disputed, according to people in the know-how of things. “There are nearly half-a-dozen seats where discussions could not take place due to disputes,” said a member of the PEC, who did not want to be named. In a few of the assembly segments, the top rung leaders strongly vouched for tickets for their supporters. There were heated arguments over a few seats, said the PEC member.
The Congress has seen a four-fold increase in the number of ticket applicants for the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections scheduled at the end of the year as compared to the 2017 polls largely because this time, the party has decided to charge no fees.
A total of 1,347 aspirants applied for the Congress ticket for 68 seats, an average of 19 contenders for each ticket. In the 2017 elections, 400 candidates filed applications for the party ticket. The highest number of 40 applications was received for Shimla (Urban) seat, represented by urban development minister Suresh Bhardwaj, who won three consecutive elections here in 2007, 2012 and 2017. The Congress last won the seat in 2003.
The screening committee headed by Deepa Dass Munshi after finalising the names will send a list to the national election committee. The national panel will likely release the first list of candidates shortly.
