With Rs 5,000 in hand, vegetable seller enters Shimla poll fray

SHIMLA: With just Rs 5,808 cash in hand and without any moveable or immoveable property, a 39-year-old vegetable seller has decided to try his luck as an independent candidate from Shimla (SC) parliamentary constituency.
Ravi Kumar is banking on public support and other political parties which have not fielded candidates on this seat to fund his campaign.
On Monday, Ravi filed his nomination papers before the returning officer in Shimla. As per his affidavit, he has Rs 5,808.87 cash in hand. Though he holds a PAN card and bank account, he does not own any moveable or immoveable property.
He said his vegetable shop is everything he has got, which is why he will rely heavily on public and other parties to run his election campaign.
He said Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation has extended support to him and has promised to print 20,000 posters for his campaign once he is allotted election symbol on May 2. Similarly, local leaders of Aam Aadmi Party too have extended their support, he claimed.
Vikas Thapta, state committee member, CPI (ML) Liberation, said their party has decided to oppose the anti-people policies of Congress and BJP in the election and thus would support Ravi Kumar in Shimla seat. He said the party would extend full support to him by printing and distributing 20,000 posters in the entire constituency. He said they would launch a 15-day election campaign from Bakras in Sirmaur district on May 2.
Ravi said he may not have money power to contest the election, but he wants to contest the election with the support of public. He said the areas especially upper Shimla, Sirmaur and Solan districts lack adequate health facilities due to which people from entire constituency are referred to Indira Gandhi Medical College at Shimla. He said improving health facilities will be his top agenda for the election.
He said while MPs and MLAs get pension, government employees are deprived of the same and are forced to join New Pension Scheme (NPS) which does not meet their after-retirement needs. He said his another agenda is to bring back the old pension scheme to benefit lakhs of government employees of the state. He said he wants to work on job creation as unemployment rate is very high in the constituency.