Himachal Pradesh Assembly bypolls: Congress names candidates for Gagret, Kutlehar, Sujanpur

Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 26

The Congress today announced its candidates for three of the six Assembly segments where byelections will be held along with the Lok Sabha elections on June 1. The byelections were necessitated following the disqualification of six Congress MLAs under the anti-defection law.

In sujanpur, Ranas switch sides

• The Congress has fielded Capt Ranjit Singh Rana (retd) from the Sujanpur Assembly constituency, three-time MLA Rakesh Kalia from Gagret and Vivek Sharma from the Kutlehar Assembly seat
• In Gagret, Rakesh Kalia will take on BJP candidate Chaitnaya Sharma, who had won the last elections on Congress ticket
• Kalia had joined the BJP after the Congress denied him ticket in the 2022 Assembly elections
• In Kutlehar, the party has fielded Vivek Sharma, as indicated by the Chief Minister during a visit to the area
• In Sujanpur, Capt Ranjit Rana, who had contested the 2022 Assembly poll on BJP ticket from the seat, will take on Rajinder Rana, BJP nominee
• Rajinder Rana had won the Sujanpur seat on Congress ticket by a slender margin of 399 votes by defeating PK Dhumal

AICC general secretary KC Venugopal issued the list of the candidates after approval from Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu had yesterday held talks with senior Congress leaders, including party in-charge for Himachal Rajeev Shukla, in New Delhi and it was expected that the candidates would be announced soon. However, the party is yet to finalise candidates for the Kangra and Hamirpur Lok Sabha seats and the Dharamsala, Lahaul-Spiti and Barsar byelections.

The Congress gave ticket to Capt Ranjit Singh Rana (retd) from the Sujanpur Assembly constituency, three-time Congress MLA Rakesh Kalia from Gagret and Vivek Sharma from the Kutlehar Assembly seat.

Interestingly, Capt Ranjit Rana, who had contested the 2022 Assembly election on BJP ticket from Sujanpur, will take on BJP candidate Rajinder Rana, who had won the seat on Congress ticket by a slender margin of 399 votes. While Ranjit Rana has joined the Congress, Rajinder Rana has switched to the BJP.

In Gagret, the Congress fielded former MLA Rakesh Kalia, who had joined the BJP after he was denied ticket in the last Assembly elections. He will take on BJP candidate Chaitnaya Sharma, who had won the last elections on Congress ticket.

In Kutlehar, the party gave ticket to Vivek Sharma, as indicated by the Chief Minister during his tour of the area.

Incidentally, the BJP has fielded all six Congress rebels from their home constituencies. They had voted in favour of BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan in the Rajya Sabha elections on February 27, leading to the defeat of Congress candidate and Supreme Court lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

The byelections are being held in the Assembly segments of Dharamsala, Gagret and Kutlehar in Una district, Sujanpur and Barsar in Hamirpur district and Lahaul and Spiti. Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kuldeep Pathania had disqualified six legislators Sudhir Sharma (Dharamsala), Chaitnaya Sharma (Gagret), Davinder Bhutto (Kutlehar), Rajinder Rana (Sujanpur), Inder Dutt Lakhanpal (Barsar) and Ravi Thakur (Lahaul-Spiti) after they defied the whip issued by the Congress for voting on the Budget and cut motion on the Health Department in the Vidhan Sabha.

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