Fighting both Congress & BJP, Dharamshala Assembly byelection won’t be cakewalk for Sudhir Sharma
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TNR Desk
Disqualified Congress MLA from Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh Sudhir Sharma has been facing the battle of his life in the June 1 byelection as he is contesting for the first time on the BJP ticket.
Disgruntled after the denial of cabinet berth in the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government, four-term Congress MLA Sudhir had quit the party and switched to the BJP recently.
Prior to that, he had cross-voted for BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan in the Raj Sabha election, leading to much embarrassment to the Congress as its candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi was defeated despite the ruling party having 40 MLAs in the 68-member Vidhan Sabha.
Sudhir has his roots in Kangra district’s Baijnath from where his father and Congress veteran Sant Ram was a six-term MLA in 1972, 1977, 1982, 1985, 1993 and 1998. Sudhir represented the Baijnath constituency in 2003 and 2007, following which the constituency was reserved for a Scheduled Caste candidate.
In the 2012 Assembly election, Sudhir was left scouting for a new seat and was fielded by the Congress from Dharamshala. He won and was made the Minister of Housing, Urban Development and Town and Country Planning in the Virbhadra Singh regime from 2012 to 2017.
Sudhir lost the 2017 Assembly election from Dharamshala to BJP’s Kishan Kapoor by 2,997 votes. A byelection ensued in 2019 when Kishan Kapoor was elected the Kangra MP, but Sudhir opted out of the fight. The Congress fielded Vijay Inder Karan, who stood third and lost to BJP debutant youth leader Vishal Nehria. Vijay Inder managed a mere 8,212 votes compared to Vishal’s 23,498.
In 2022, Sudhir won by 3,285 votes against BJP’s Rakesh Choudhary. While Sudhir got 27,323 votes, Choudhary got 24,038. Choudhary’s defeat was also attributed to 7,416 votes secured by BJP rebel Vipan Nehria, who stood third.
In the 2024 byelection, several BJP leaders are miffed at the party ticket being given to Sudhir. Both Vipan Nehria and Rakesh Choudhary have declared that they would be contesting as Independent, increasing the troubles for Sudhir. Though former MLA Vishal Nehria had shared the stage with Sudhir during a recent function, he too may be disgruntled as the youth leader was eyeing the ticket for himself.
The ruling Congress too will leave no stone unturned to defeat Sudhir with an “oust the traitor” campaign already being launched. Rajneesh Padhal, son of former Congress district general secretary Mool Raj Padhal who remained the Dharamshala MLA in 1985, had raked the “outsider” issue against Sudhir and appealed to the Dharamshala people to elect an “indigenous MLA”. He alleged that everyone supported Sudhir, but he kept his doors closed to the public.
