TNR Desk
Even as the schedule for the Lok Sabha elections is to be announced on Saturday (March 16, 2024), the Congress has been struggling to find suitable candidates for at least three of the four constituencies in Himachal Pradesh.
The party’s challenges have only been aggravated by the rebellion by the six disqualified Congress MLAs as some of them could have been the potential candidates from Hamirpur and Kangra segments.
A political analyst said the Congress could have fielded Sujanpur MLA Rajinder Rana from Hamirpur and Dharamshala legislator Sudhir Sharma from Kangra. Winning Hamirpur is a formidable challenge for the Congress as the BJP has won it eight times since 1998.
Suresh Chandel had won from here in 1998, 1999 and 2004. Former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal emerged victorious in 2007 while his son and Union Minister Anurag Thakur has been representing the seat since 2008.
Anurag won for the first time in the 2008 bypoll that was necessitated after Prem Kumar Dhumal won as an MLA and became the Himachal Chief Minister the second time. Anurag again won in 2009, 2014 and 2019 and has been fielded by the BJP for the fifth time.
Before joining the Congress, Rajinder Rana was a close aide of Dhumal and was considered his right hand. He emerged as the giant slayer for the Congress in the 2017 Assembly elections as he defeated his political mentor Dhumal from Sujanpur despite the latter being declared the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate. Besides Rana, the Congress could even have fielded dynamic youth leader and disqualified first-time MLA Chaitanya Sharma (represented Gagret in Una) against Anurag. Disqualified three-term Barsar (Hamirpur) MLA Inder Dutt Lakhanpal could have been another choice.
From Kangra, Sudhir Sharma would have suited the Congress the most as he wields considerable influence in the constituency. The BJP has won the seat three times in a row in 2009, 2014 and 2019, with sitting MP Kishan Kapoor registering a historic victory last time by the second-highest margin of 4,77,623 votes in the country.
Both Rana and Sudhir are miffed with the Congress over the denial of ministerial berths. They have been spearheading the rebellion against Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, something that could even lead to the fall of the Congress government in the state.
