E-Paper
October 30 bypolls: Himachal Congress sends four names to party high command
With the Congress Pradesh Election Committee authorising the party’s interim president Sonia Gandhi to take a final call on candidates for bypolls to three assemblies and one parliamentary seat, Himachal leaders have their feedback on the prospects of different contenders
With the Congress Pradesh Election Committee authorising the party’s interim president Sonia Gandhi to take a final call on candidates for bypolls to three assemblies and one parliamentary seat, Himachal leaders have their feedback on the prospects of different contenders.
The party high command is likely to announce the candidates tomorrow. State party chief along with the AICC secretary co-in-charge for party affairs in Himachal Sanjay Dutt and leader of Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri called on AICC in-charge for Himachal affairs Rajiv Shukla in Delhi to apprise them about the candidates.
“We have apprised the party high command about the prospects of the candidates,” said PCC chief Kuldeep Singh Rathore. Pradesh election committee had passed a single-line resolution asking the high command to take a final decision on the names.
There were single names of the party leader from Jubbal Kotkhai and Fatehpur. Former chief parliamentary secretary Rohit Thakur who’s been a legislator twice had taken to campaigning much in advance. The bypolls to Jubbal Kotkhai had been necessitated after the death of former horticulture minister Narendra Bragta.
Rohit is the grandson of former chief minister Ram Lal Thakur and BJP has already given a go-ahead to Narendra Bragta’s elder so in Chetan Bragta.
Bhawani Singh Pathania, son of Rajput leader and former minister Sujan Singh Pathania, is the party’s lone choice from Fathepur. The race is intense in Arki where the party had to make choice from Sanjay Awasthi and Rajender Thakur, a local leader in Arki and close aide of former chief minister Virbhadra Singh.
Sanjay Awasthi had contested to assembly in 2012 on Congress ticket but lost to Govind Ram of BJP by a slender margin, and in 2017 Virbhadra Singh shifted to Arki vacating Shimla rural for his son Vikramaditya Singh. Awasthi’s candidature is being backed by former PCC chief Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu.
From Mandi parliamentary seat, former Lok Sabha member Pratibha Singh’s candidature is almost certain. Pratibha has been a member of Parliament twice from the Mandi seat which her husband represented five times. Congress is hoping to gain sympathy votes in Mandi after Virbhadra Singh’s demise.
Former health minister Kaul Singh’s name also figured for Mandi but he himself had been unwilling to contest elections while former Union minister Sukhram’s grandson Ashray Sharma is intensely lobbying for the ticket using his grandfather clout in Delhi. Ashray had lost elections to BJP’s Ramsaroop Sharma in 2017.
