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Combative Congress, confident BJP battle for Hamirpur seat in Himachal assembly bypolls
The last time that the Congress won the seat, which has also been held by former CM PK Dhumal was in 2003
The political battle in Hamirpur, one of the three assembly seats where bypolls will be held on July 10, holds significance for both the ruling Congress and opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
While Hamirpur is the home district of chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, who represents the Nadaun in the assembly, it is also the home turf of former Union minister Anurag Thakur, who represents the Hamirpur seat in the Lok Sabha.
The Congress has entrusted faith in Pushpinder Verma, while the BJP has fielded former independent legislator Ashish Sharma.
The BJP has dominated the seat, having secured three consecutive terms between 2007 to 2017. Since 1998, the Congress has managed to win the seat only once in 2003 when party candidate Anita Thakur secured the victory. The seat was also represented by BJP stalwart and former CM Prem Kumar Dhumal, who secured victory in the 2012 assembly elections.
An upbeat Congress
However, the Congress is upbeat after its recent bypolls success, winning four the six seats where elections were held on June 1.
In the 2022 assembly polls, Ashish Sharma faced off against Pushpinder Verma. The latter managed to secure a win with a margin of around 12,000 votes. However, the ground situation has changed since, with the Congress party turning up the attack on Ashish Sharma for betraying the mandate and trust of the public who voted for him in the last elections.
The strategy had worked well for the party in the June 1 bypolls, when Congress made its rebels’ perceived backstabbing a poll plank. The Congress had run a high-decibel campaign accusing the BJP for orchestrating the rebellion in a bid to destabilise the state government by using money power.
Prem Koshal, the chief spokesperson of the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee, said, “The Independent MLAs are not able to justify to the public why they resigned from the assembly. Our party is also reaching out to the public, highlighting the development and welfare measures taken after Congress came to power in the state.”
BJP rakes up unmet promises
Meanwhile, the BJP has been accusing the Congress of failing to deliver on the promises they made to the public. The saffron party has also recently made sharp attacks on the state government, saying that the law-and-order situation has deteriorated in the state.
BJP MLA and party spokesperson, Randhir Sharma, criticised the Congress for its performance in the state.
“One and a half years of the Congress government have passed, and they have done nothing for the people. They have not continued developmental work and have shut down several government institutions, including the state service selection board. They have also failed to fulfil their election promises, leading to public dissatisfaction,” he said, alleging that only friends and relatives are growing under the Congress government in the state.
The bypolls in Hamirpur, Nalagarh and Dehra assembly segments, which will be held on July 10, were necessitated after the Speaker accepted the resignation of three independent MLAs who resigned from the House and joined the BJP. The saffron party fielded all the three former independent legislators from the three assembly segments they represented before their resignation.
