Congress may field sitting MLAs for upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Himachal Pradesh
Holding its foot on one of three Lok Sabha seats in Himachal Pradesh, the ruling Congress has initiated a process to gear-up its organisational machinery for the upcoming Parliamentary elections, and make a bid to consolidate the gains of its being in the power to increase its tally of MPs beyond a single seat.
A meeting of the top Congress leaders held in New Delhi has asked the state party leadership to prepare a panel of the names for probable candidates for the Lok Sabha elections and submit the same to the party high command.
Insiders say while there is quite a clarity that sitting MP Pratibha Singh will be re-fielded from Mandi—the seat she had won in the 2021 bypolls, the party will have to draw panels of three names each for Shimla, Hamirpur and Kangra parliamentary seats.
The party is of the view that even for Mandi, the panel could include two other names beside Pratibha Singh for a broader consideration and one of such names could be Vikramaditya Singh, two-time MLA and a cabinet minister in the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government. Nevertheless, Pratibha Singh remains the number one choice.
Sources in the Congress said, the party was not averse to fielding sitting MLAs for the forthcoming elections has hints given by Rajiv Shukla the party in-charge who had convened the meeting at his residence two days back.
The meeting was attended by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri and PCC president Pratibha Singh.
It has been decided that the Congress party will invite applications from the candidates willing to contest the elections. The applications could be received upto February 15 . The applications can be submitted after February 9. The aspirants will be required to deposit a fee of Rs 10,000 along with the application.
Said Congress Organisation General Secretary Rajneesh Kimta, ‘This was being done as per guidelines of All India Congress Committee. The applications will be shortlisted at the party level in the state. The party will also conduct an independent survey to study the pulse of the general public and party workers regarding the popularity, dedication, image and history of the leader applying for the ticket.’
‘A proposal will be sent to the Congress screening committee to give party tickets to the leaders found better in the survey. The screening committee will shortlist the names on February 25 and form a panel and send it to the high command for approval. After this, Congress candidates contesting elections from the state will be selected,’ he said .
Some of the probable candidates for the Hamirpur parliamentary seat, include Barsar MLA Inderjit Lakhanpal, former Una MLA Satpal Raizada and CM’s political advisor Suneel Kumar Sharma (Bittu).
Hamirpur is the strongest bastion of Union minister for Information and Broadcasting, Anurag Thakur - a four-time MP. It’s also the home district of Chief Minister Sukhu. Thus, stakes are very high for the Congress in Hamirpur.
The names going around for Kangra are HP Tourism Board Chairman R S Bali, Dharamshala MLA and former minister Sudhir Sharma and cabinet minister Chander Kumar.
Whereas, from the Shimla (R) seat, the names under discussion are sitting MLA Vinod Sultanpuri, Assembly Deputy Speaker Vinay Kumar and Congress leader Amit Nanda.
This will be the first general election when Sukhu will face a test to his leadership and one-and-a-half year of the Congress government.
The discussions were also held in Delhi on names for the lone Rajya Sabha seat which is going to fall vacant on completion of the term of BJP National President J P Nadda. It is understood the Chief Minister is keen on sending former AICC president Sonia Gandhi or AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Vadra had campaigned in the 2022 elections in the state and also owns a house in Shimla.
Chief Minister Sukhu and PCC president Pratibha Singh are expected to meet Sonia Gandhi and convey their collective decision.
