The Newz Radar
In the coming Himachal Pradesh Assembly poll, six persons from the Congress and three from the BJP are in the contention for the party ticket from Churah constituency in Chamba district.
Surinder Bhardwaj, a retired Executive Engineer of the Public Works Department and a two-time Congress MLA from Churah; Prakash Bhutani, who took voluntary retirement from the police department; Yashwant Khanna, a lecturer in chemistry at the Education Department who too took voluntary retirement; advocate Madan Rawat and TC Hasmukh are among the contenders for the ticket from the Congress.
From the BJP, apart from the present party vice-president and MLA Hansraj, two more names have been included in the list of party ticket seekers. They are Naresh Rawat, who was the panchayat head from Masrund, and Bhajan Dhiman, who was a spokesperson at a private college. However, Dhiman is learnt to being favoured by senior BJP cell leaders as he was one of the main supporters of the party during the first Assembly election of the sitting MLA and Deputy Speaker.
BJP supporters are allegedly angry with the functioning of the present MLA and want the ticket for educated youth.
If the past elections are taken into account, no party candidate has been able to put up a victory hat-trick from Churah so far. Pandit Vidyadhar, who was a minister from the Congress, after tasting victory in the elections for two consecutive terms, lost for the third time in the election against BJP’s Ayurveda Minister Mohan Lal. After winning twice, Mohan Lal lost to Congress candidate Surinder Bhardwaj. BJP candidate Hansraj did not let Surinder Bhardwaj’s desire to hit a hat-trick be fulfilled.
