TNR Desk
Former Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Gangu Ram Musafir, a former veteran Congress leader who had contested as an independent from Pachhad Assembly constituency in the 2022 elections after the party denied him the ticket, rejoined the Congress in Shimla on Saturday (April 20, 2024).
Musafir remained the MLA from Pachhad reserved seat for record seven consecutive terms in 1982, 1985, 1990, 1993, 1998, 2003 and 2007. He fought as an Independent in 1982 and on the Congress ticket in the rest of his terms. He lost to BJP’s Suresh Kashyap in 2012 and 2017 and to the saffron party’s Reena Kashyhap in the 2019 byelection, necessitated after Suresh Kashyap was elected an MP.
Musafir rejoined the Congress in the presence of Congress state president Pratibha Singh in Shimla. Assembly Deputy Speaker Vinay Kumar, party’s working president Sanjay Awasthi and other leaders were also present on the occasion.
Contesting as an Independent, he had secured 13,187 votes in the 2022 Assembly elections. Congress nominee Dayal Pyari had 17,358 votes whereas winning candidate BJP’s Reena Kashyap got 21,215 votes. In 1982, Musafir was elected as an Independent MLA by defeating the Congress candidate. After that, he became an MLA by winning elections on the Congress ticket for six consecutive times.
He rejoined the Congress at an event organised by the party to brainstorm for the Shimla (SC) parliamentary constituency from where the candidate is Kasauli MLA Vinod Sultanpuri, who is pitted against BJP’s Suresh Kashyap.
