Himachal Pradesh: Congress cautious in selecting candidates for Lok Sabha election

SHIMLA: BJP has taken a lead in deciding the candidates for the Lok Sabha election in Himachal Pradesh while Congress seems to be lagging so far. One reason for this cautious approach of Congress in the selection of candidates could be the fact that in 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Congress had failed to win even a single seat in Himachal. So this time, the party wants to be doubly sure about the winning prospect of a candidate before making the final announcement.

So far, Congress has declared candidates in two out of the total four Lok Sabha seats. The situation is that around months’ time has left for voting, but the issue of Congress tickets is still stuck. BJP on its part has already declared candidates for all the seats and its candidates have already started campaigning.

Congress has given candidates for Shimla and Mandi Lok Sabha seats while a decision is yet to be taken for Hamirpur and Kangra seats. Congress had to struggle in fielding candidates deciding candidates in Shimla and Mandi and after several rounds of talks and brainstorming, Vikramaditya Singh's ticket was finalized from Mandi and Kasauli MLA Vinod Sultanpuri was finalized from Shimla Lok Sabha seat.

As far as Kangra and Hamirpur Lok Sabha seats are concerned, churning is still going on. In the most important Kangra Lok Sabha, the Congress is struggling to find a suitable candidate. Initially, names of former Dalhousie MLA Asha Kumari and Rajesh Sharma were going the rounds from this seat and then name of Nagrota MLA R S Bali was also included in the list of probable candidate from this seat and now the name of senior Congress leader and former union minister Anand Sharma is also being taken from this seat.

People are curious to know about the candidate as BJP has fielded Rajeev Bhardwaj from this seat. R S Bali who is also the chairman of HPTDC with cabinet rank has already made it clear that instead of Lok Sabha his assembly constituency is his priority. There is a churning going on in the Congress on whether a Brahmin face should be fielded from Kangra or the ticket should be given from the Gaddi community.

Even in the Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat, Congress has not been able to finalise the candidate so far. Earlier the name of former Una MLA Satpal Raizada was projected against BJP’s Anurag Thakur for Hamirpur seat but later the names of deputy chief minister Mukesh Agnihotri and his daughter Aastha Agnihotri also cropped up both Mukesh and his daughter have expressed their inability citing personal reasons. Now who will be Congress candidate for this high profile seat would be interesting to see as Anurag Thakur has won four consecutive elections from here and this time he is contesting for the fifth time from the same seat.