Sujanpur, Dharamshala among 3 Assembly seats where byelection has become prestige battle for Himachal CM Sukhu
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TNR Desk
Though the ruling Congress is aiming to win all six Assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh where the byelections are scheduled on June 1, defending the Sujanpur, Barsar and Dharamshala constituencies has become a prestige battle for Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.
All the six seats were won by the Congress in the 2022 Assembly elections. These were vacated by dissident leaders who have strongly criticised CM Sukhu’s allegedly dictatorial way of functioning. The MLAs were disqualified recently from the Vidhan Sabha for allegedly violating a party whip on voting during the budget session.
The six rebels, who subsequently joined the BJP and have been fielded by the saffron party in the bypolls, are Sudhir Sharma (Dharamshala), Rajinder Rana (Sujanpur), Inder Dutt Lakhanpal (Barsar), Ravi Thakur (Lahaul-Spiti MLA), Chaitanya Sharma (Gagret) and Davinder Kumar Bhutto (Kutlehar).
Of the six seats, Sujanpur and Barsar are in Sukhu’s home district Hamirpur. Four of these — Sujanpur, Barsar, Gagret and Kutlehar — form part of Hamirpur parliamentary constituency.
Outgoing Sujanpur MLA Rana and Sudhir have been the most vocal against the Sukhu regime, accusing it of being ignorant of the ground realities. CM Sukhu, on his part, has accused the duo of masterminding the conspiracy to topple a “democratically elected government”. He alleged that of the six rebels, Rana and Sudhir were paid the highest amount for voting against their parent party in the Rajya Sabha election. The Congress has even started an “Aaya Rana Gaya Rana” campaign, synonymous with “Aaya Ram Gaya Ram” slogan, often used to target turncoats.
Both Sudhir and Rana have been miffed with Sukhu over the denial of a place in the Himachal cabinet. By ensuring the party’s victory in Sujanpur and Dharamshala, Sukhu would not only be looking to strengthen his position in the Congress, but also prove his detractors wrong that he was right in denying the duo ministerial berths.
CM Sukhu would also be looking to avenge the huge embarrassment he had to face following the Congress’ loss in the recent Rajya Sabha election for the lone seat from Himachal. All the six disqualified Congress MLAs had cross-voted in favour of BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan, who won despite his party having 25 MLAs compared to 40 of the ruling Congress. Mahajan defeated Congress nominee Abhishek Manu Singhvi through a draw of lots as both polled 34 votes after the three Independent MLAs also supported the BJP.
