Shimla: Shimla (SC) Parliamentary constituency, which wields an inordinate heft in the state and has given it three chief ministers, is heading for a lively contest as the arch rivals Congress and BJP have pitted their sitting MLA and sitting MP.
The Congress has fielded Vinod Sultanpuri, the sitting MLA from Kasauli and son of six-time MP Krishan Dutt Sultanpuri from the Shimla seat. He will try to take on the sitting MP and former BJP state president, Suresh Kashyap. The Shimla Lok Sabha constituency has been the epicentre of state politics for over four decades. Three previous chief ministers, Y S Parmar, Thakur Ram Lal and Virbhadra Singh, who remained in power for about forty years hailed from this constituency.The two leaders facing off have been vying for the people’s votes raising several issues afflicting the people of the constituency.
Doubling of import duty on apples from fifty per cent has been the main demand of farmers from the constituency, where eight out of seventeen Assembly seats have been impacted by cheap apples from Iran and other countries. Poor condition of roads, frequent landslides, and hydropower projects are some of the other issues in Shimla, which the contenders seek to address after winning, they say.
Some other issues, such as that of illegal mining, manufacturing of substandard drugs, and lack of industrial infrastructure specific to Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh and Paonta Sahib areas also make to the list of the politicians. Considered a Congress bastion, Shimla (PC), which came into existence in 1967 after the merger of hilly areas of Punjab, has been reserved for members of the SC community since its inception.
Out of fourteen Lok Sabha elections since 1967, Congress has won the seat nine times, BJP thrice, and Janata Party and Himachal Vikas Congress once each. The BJP wrested the seat in 2009 for the first time, and retained it in 2014 and 2019. Kashyap is banking on his past work for the public’s votes.
He has claimed that he got sanctioned projects worth Rs 27,000 crore, including the Rs 1,540 crore Chandigarh-Baddi Railway line, Rs 5,000 crore Medical Device Park, and Rs 6,947 crore for Renuka Dam project under his term.