Congress to lock Himachal picks today

The Congress is likely to take a call on candidates for the remaining two Lok Sabha seats in Himachal.

The Congress is likely to take a call on candidates for the remaining two Lok Sabha seats in Himachal on Thursday after a meeting of its Central Election Committee, where the party is also expected to finalise the nominees for the six assembly seats where by-elections are scheduled.

Chief minister (CM) Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, deputy CM Mukesh Agnihotri, and party’s state unit president Pratibha Singh will attend the meeting in Delhi, a party functionary said.

Sukhu left for Delhi from Nadaun on Wednesday afternoon after campaigning for the party in Dharamshala and Sujanpur assembly segments.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has already taken the lead in announcing candidates, reposing faith in Anurag Thakur from Hamirpur and Suresh Kashyap from Shimla. The BJP surprised its rank and file by allocating tickets to actor-turned-politician Kangana Ranaut from the Mandi and Rajeev Bhardwaj from Kangra.

BJP had won all four seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, but Pratibha Singh in 2021 wrested the Mandi seat from BJP in a by-election necessitated by the death of sitting member Ram Swaroop Sharma. Pratibha, however, stepped back from contesting elections leaving the decision to the party’s high command, which fielded her son and public works department minister Vikramaditya Singh. Kasauli MLA Vinod Sultanpuri has been fileded from Shimla.

However, Congress, which is battling an internal crisis, is yet to announce the names of its candidates for the two Lok Sabha seats — Kangra and Hamirpur as well as the six assembly constituencies of Dharamshala, Sujanpur, Lahaul and Spiti, Barsar, Gagret and Kutlehar.

The BJP has fielded all six Congress turncoats who cross-voted for the saffron party in the February Rajya Sabha polls that had sent the state government into a crisis.

The tickets to Congress rebels have seemingly triggered unrest amongst the ticket aspirants in the BJP. Former minister Ram Lal Markanda has already announced his resignation from BJP and announced his decision to contest elections. Local Congress leaders, however, are against the party giving him a ticket.

In Gagret, former MLA Rakesh Kalia who quit the party after being denied a ticket in the 2022 assembly elections returned to the Congress fold, while in Dharamshala, Rakesh Chaudhary who contested assembly elections on a BJP ticket has resigned from the party. Former mayor Devender Jaggi too is also vying for Congress’ ticket.

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