Rajeev Bhardwaj of Himachal BJP, contesting from Kangra parliamentary constituency, and Congress's Satpal Raizada from Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat filed their nomination papers on Friday, May 10, ahead of the June 1 Lok Sabha elections.
Bhardwaj, who is a close relative of former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Shanta Kumar, is pitted against Congress's Anand Sharma, a four-time Rajya Sabha member and former Union minister. Sharma filed his nomination on May 9.
In conversation with the media personnel, Bhardwaj, who was accompanied by BJP leader and former Speaker Vipan Parmar, said, "I am connected to the ground, started my political career as a booth president and rose the ranks, unlike Anand Sharma."
Congress's Raizada also filed his nomination from Hamirpur. He was accompanied by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, state Congress chief Pratibha Singh, and former minister Ram Lal Thakur.
Raizada, a former MLA from Una, is pitted against four-time MP and Union minister Anurag Thakur.
Meanwhile, Congress rebel and now BJP candidate Rajendra Rana and Captain Ranjit Singh, who left the BJP to contest on a Congress ticket, also filed their nomination for the Sujanpur assembly by-polls.
As many as 18 candidates filed their papers on the fourth day taking the total nominations filed so far to 39. Prominent among them were Congress rebel and BJP candidate from Barsar assembly seat Inder Dutt Lakhanpal and Congress candidate from Kutlehar assembly seat Vivek Sharma.
Both the Congress and the BJP held rallies after the filing of nominations in Kangra and Hamirpur constituencies. Sukhu accused his predecessor Jai Ram Thakur of ignoring Hamirpur while in power for five years and said not a single MLA from the district was inducted into his ministry.
The people have to decide between money power and public power, he said.
Sukhu also took a dig at the Independents and Congress rebels who voted in favour of the BJP in Rajya Sabha polls and said an Independent MLA from Hamirpur took tenders worth Rs 100 crore in 14 months accusing rebels of indulging in corrupt practices and backstabbing.
Sukhu termed Anurag Thakur a "paper tiger" with no love and affection for the people and claimed the Union minister could not bring any help from the Centre when the state was suffering from natural calamity last year.
Addressing a rally, Jai Ram Thakur accused Sukhu of becoming intoxicated with power, ignoring the interests of the common Himachali, and disrespecting the elected representatives.
Anurag Thakur said Sukhu had forgotten that his film flopped the day his own MLAs left the Congress and joined the BJP. The film of such an anti-people government did not work and was bound to flop and to go out of theatres, he added.
Anurag Thakur claimed that the anti-Sanatan dharma statements by top leaders of the Congress prove that they are adopting an appeasement policy towards Muslims and other minority communities.
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