Himachal Pradesh: Naina Devi MLA to take on Anurag Thakur

SHIMLA: After days of brainstorming, the Congress has finally decided to field Naina Devi MLA Ram Lal Thakur from Hamirpur parliamentary seat against BJP’s sitting MP Anurag Thakur.
Congress was witnessing a fierce battle among its leaders for the ticket from Hamirpur and candidature of Ram Lal Thakur is being seen as a move to bring together the warring factions. Announcement has also drawn curtains on the entry of senior BJP leader and former MP Suresh Chandel into Congress, who was also seeking party ticket, but was facing opposition from a section of Congress leaders.
Sources said that there were other contenders for the tickets, including former state Congress president Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu. Sources also said that the Congress high command had actually decided to field Chandel, who has won this seat earlier in 1998, 1999 and 2004, but some leaders opposed the move.
The final decision was made by president Rahul Gandhi, said sources, as both the five-member screening committee and the central election committee could not decide.
The entry of Ram Lal Thakur in electoral battle has only spiced things up for Hamirpur. Both he and Anurag are yet to settle the cricket association issue. Sometime ago, when Anurag was heading Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association, Ram Lal had questioned his decision to convert cricket association from society to company.
The last that Congress had won Hamirpur parliamentary seat was in 1996. BJP has been winning this seat since 1998 onwards. This is not the first time either that Ram Lal would be contesting from this seat. In 2007, he had contested against BJP’s Prem Kumar Dhumal and had lost by a margin of nearly 80,000 votes. Anurag has won three consecutive elections from Hamirpur — in 2008, 2009 and 2014.
The rivalry between warring factions made it difficult for Congress to field a suitable candidate from Hamirpur. In the past, the party high command used to consider former chief minister Virbhadra Singh’s suggestions. Interestingly, Virbhadra was supporting the candidature of Abhishek Rana this time round. It is to be seen how far Virbhadra and his supporters would go to support the candidacy, sources added.