Congress treading cautiously in announcing candidates on Hamirpur and Kangra seats

Congress treading cautiously in announcing candidates on Hamirpur and Kangra seats

SHIMLA: Facing the challenge of opening its account this time after failing to win even a single seat out of 4 Lok Sabha seats in 2014 and 2019 parliamentary elections, Congress this time is treading cautiously in selecting candidates. In the high profile Hamirpur parliamentary seat, Congress is finding it difficult to identify a candidate who could stop union minister Anurag Thakur from winning this seat consecutively for a record fifth time. So for this very reason, despite forwarding the name of former Una MLA Satpal Raizada as candidate, now party is looking for some strong face and same is the case with the Kangra seat where name of former Dalhousie MLA Asha Kumari was under consideration but now party is going to decide the candidate on the basis of survey.

In the politics of Himachal Pradesh, caste plays an important factor. So far the party has announced candidates on two seats with PWD Vikramaditya Singh announced candidate from Mandi parliamentary seat and Kasauli MLA Vinod Sultanpuri from Shimla (SC) parliamentary seat. The other two names under consideration are of Satpal Raizada and Asha Kumari and along with Vikramaditya Sing they all belong to the Rajput community so under such scenario now the Congress leadership is considering to strike a balance.

During the Central Election Committee meeting held in New Delhi an attempt was made to rope in a Brahmin candidate in Hamirpur parliamentary seat by asking Ashta Agnihotri, daughter of deputy chief minister Mukesh Agnihotri, to contest but she refused. After this, the Congress is waiting for the survey report to announce candidates on the remaining two seats.

Hamirpur has become the focus of Lok Sabha election in Himachal Pradesh with top leadership of both Congress and BJP including Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri of Congress beside BJP national president J P Nadda, former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and BJP candidate Anurag Thakur all belong to this parliamentary constituency.

Hamirpur Lok Sabha constituency has been a stronghold of BJP. Before 1998, Congress had definitely won in 1996 but before that in 1989 and 1991 Lok Sabha elections also the people here had elected BJP candidate. In the last 8 elections, BJP has managed to win from the Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat since 1998. BJP has won from this seat in 1998, 1999, 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019 and the by-elections held in 2007 and 2008.

Sitting MP and Union Minister Anurag Thakur has won the elections from Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat 4 times in a row and this time also the party has fielded him. Anurag Thakar had reached Parliament by winning the 2008 by-election, since then he has won the elections continuously in 2009, 2014 and 2019. Earlier, BJP’s Suresh Chandel, Prem Kumar Dhumal and Congress’s Narayan Chand had won the Lok Sabha elections thrice each from Hamirpur seat.

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