Scramble for ticket for D’sala Assembly byelection begins

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, May 24

With the BJP registering a massive win in the parliamentary election and Minister for Food and Civil Supplies Kishan Kapoor winning with a huge margin of 4.77 lakh votes, race has begun for the BJP ticket from the Dharamsala Assembly constituency.

Kishan Kapoor had been contesting from Dharamsala Assembly constituency since 1990. He was elected an 

MLA from the constituency five times and remained as minister in the Himachal Cabinet three times.

Now that the seat had been being vacated, the party was pondering over the replacement of Kishan Kapoor. Sources here said that the party would take Krishan Kapoor into confidence before naming the party candidate from Dharamsala, given the fact that he has a strong vote bank in the constituency.

The sources here also said that many young BJP leaders are fancying their chances for party ticket for Dharamsala by-election. Many of them are trying to project their names through social media channels.

The names of close confidants of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur were doing round on social media. The sources here also said that the party might go for an early by-election.

From the Congress, former minister and AICC secretary Sudhir Sharma is most likely to contest. 

He had first contested and won from this constituency in 2012. Sharma remained a minister for urban development in the Congress government from 2012 to 2017. He once again contested from Dharamsala in 2017 but lost to Krishan Kapoor.

The sources say that Sudhir Sharma has been preparing for the Assembly by-election. However, the by-election was going to be tough for the Congress due to the fact that there was a BJP government in the state and recently the BJP candidate Kishan Kapoor had secured a lead of 18,000 votes from Dharamsala in the parliamentary elections. Moreover, bringing together all splinter groups of the Congress would also be a challenge for the candidate.

Meanwhile, the BJP workers were in celebratory mood today after party’s resounding win in the parliamentary elections. Sweets were distributed in various areas of Dharamsala. New BJP MP Krishan Kapoor went to Palampur to seek the blessings of his mentor, former Chief Minister and the outgoing MP from Kangra, Shanta Kumar. The Congress camp was still in shock as there was no reaction to such a massive defeat from any of the Congress leaders from Kangra district.