Congress fields Hardeep Bawa, Pushpendra Verma for Nalagarh, Hamirpur byelections in Himachal
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The Congress has nominated Hardeep Bawa as its candidate for the Nalagarh Assembly byelection and Dr Pushpendra Verma from Hamirpur. The party, however, is yet to announce its candidate for Dehra seat.
The byelections to these three seats are slated for July 10 and were necessitated after the resignation of Independent MLAs Krishan Lal Thakur (Nalagarh), Hoshyar Singh (Dehra) and Ashish Sharma (Hamirpur). The trio had given up their legislative membership to join the BJP, which has fielded the three to defend their old seats.
The Newz Radar had earlier reported citing sources close to Chief Minister SUkhvinder Singh Sukhu that the re-nomination of Hardeep Bawa, who had lost to Krishan Lal Thakur by 13,264 votes in the 2022 Assembly elections in Nalagarh, was almost certain. Dr Pushpendra Verma had lost to Ashish by 12,899 votes in the last election.
The Newz Radar had also mentioned that Dr Pushpendra Verma was among the frontrunners for the Congress ticket from Hamirpur, which is the home district of Chief Minister Sukhu. Among the other prominent contenders were former MLA Anita Verma, Kangra Central Cooperative Bank president Kuldeep Pathania, Rajiv Rana and the Chief Minister’s political adviser Sunil Kumar Bittu.
From Dehra, the names of former contender Dr Rajesh Sharma, who had lost by 3,877 votes to Hoshyar Singh last time, and Nardev Kanwar are under consideration. Additional contenders are also being explored for this constituency.
Prior to finalising the party’s candidates, consultations were conducted with block Congress committees, district officials and senior leaders from the three Assembly constituencies. Chief Minister Sukhu had even visited Delhi to submit his report to the high command after meetings with Congress state president Pratibha Singh and Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri.
