Kangra Congress leaders to bury hatchet

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, June 28

Congress leaders of Kangra district have resolved to sink their differences, work together and not to interfere in each other’s constituencies in the coming Assembly elections in the state. Sources say that the district Congress leaders gathered at Palampur yesterday and vowed to work together.

Former minister and AICC secretary Sudhir Sharma, AICC secretary Raghubir Singh Bali, district Congress president Ajay Mahajan, working president and Kangra MLA Pawan Kajal, Fatehpur MLA Bhawani Singh Pathania, former Rajya Sabha member Viplove Thakur, former MP Chander Kumar, HPCC general secretary Kewal Singh Pathania and former MLAs Jagjivan Pal, Yadwinder Goma and Sanjay Rattan attended the meeting.

The Congress in the district has been marred by factionalism. It is divided into factions owing allegiance to the groups of former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and former minister GS Bali. However, after the demise of both leaders, a vacuum has been created in the district Congress. There is mutual distrust among Congress leaders in Kangra district, most of them have limited themselves to their constituencies. There are apprehensions that the BJP might poach some of the Congress leaders in Kangra.

Sudhir Sharma, while talking to The Tribune, said that the Congress leaders gave a message to the party workers that they were united and would strongly take on the BJP in the forthcoming Assembly elections, he added.

It is for the first time since Virbhadra’s death that all Congress leaders of Kangra have come together on one platform. The Kangra Congress has not been able to launch even one political campaign at the district level for quite some time. The leaders also failed to mobilise workers during the first visit of new HPCC president Pratibha Singh to Dharamsala last month.

District Congress president Ajay Mahajan said that the party would soon launching a campaign. “Now that the party has a new leadership, a campaign will be launched against the Agniveer scheme of the Central Government and the constable recruitment paper leak case,” he added.

While the Congress is trying to set its house in order in Kangra, the BJP has gone all out in the biggest district having 15 Assembly segments. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the district this month and Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur’s frequent tours of Kangra are part of the BJP’s strategy for the forthcoming Assembly elections.

On one platform

Former minister and AICC secretary Sudhir Sharma, AICC secretary Raghubir S Bali, district Congress president Ajay Mahajan, working president and Kangra MLA Pawan Kajal, Fatehpur MLA Bhawani Singh Pathania, former MP Viplove Thakur and Chander Kumar, HPCC general secretary Kewal Singh Pathania and former MLAs Jagjivan Pal, Yadwinder Goma and Sanjay Rattan.

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