Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Anand Sharma, hailing from Shimla, aims to strike a chord with the typical voters in Kangra Parliamentary constituency in Himachal Pradesh.
In his maiden electoral battle for Lok Sabha on June 1, he may try covering up the ‘outsider’ tag, with his stature and maturity in politics.
He faces BJP’s novice, Rajeev Bhardwaj, 62, a low-profile leader who draws strength from the BJP cadres and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s name in this politically significant constituency. It was earlier represented by former Union minister and former CM Shanta Kumar.
It came as a surprise when the Congress party chose to field a four-time former Rajya Sabha MP from Shimla district on the Kangra Lok Sabha seat in the 2024 general elections.
However, a bigger surprise was that Sharma took it positively and started reconnecting with his old linkages of Youth Congress. Before this, he had fought only one election from the Shimla Assembly constituency against BJP’s Daulat Ram Chauhan, which he had lost.
Sharma, who is known for his high profile approach in politics, formal look and speech all through, is now roughing it on the electoral battlefield field wearing a white Kurta, casually wrapping a cotton muffler with a Congress flag around the neck as he campaigns in the Kangra-Chamba Parliamentary constituency.
He is seen conversing in the Pahari language in his public speeches and meetings, flagging the local concerns, along with some national issues against the Modi government, right from the perceived ‘threat to Constitution’, increasing unemployment and BJP’s failure to create 2 Crore jobs every year and so on.
Knowing well that many soldiers come from Kangra, Sharma carefully touched the pulse of people in all his rallies on the Agniveer policy, which the Congress is promising to scrap once it comes into power.
He has also promised the people in the remote Chamba district that he would strengthen the Medical College and hospital in Chamba so that patients don’t have to rush to Tanda Medical College or PGI, Chandigarh in an emergency, if voted into power.
“I know Kangra very well. I have travelled here several times when I headed the Youth Congress in the state and at the national level. I have campaigned in Kangra-Chamba in almost every election over the last four decades. I have my friends from those times and the younger lot too, who are all out in the field now,” says Anand Sharma, as he counts on his contribution to Himachal Pradesh and Kangra Parliamentary constituency, while at the same time, he was Union Minister for Commerce and Industry and Union Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in the past.
Sharma enlists that as a Minister in the UPA government being Rajya Sabha MP, he had made efforts to establish a Passport office in Himachal, the National Institute of Fashion Designing in Kangra, an industry in Indora and the regional office of the Tea Board office in Palampur.
The Congress nominee has the backing of 11 Congress MLAs ( out of 17 Assembly constituencies) in the Kangra-Chamba Parliamentary constituency, which includes two ministers, a Speaker, a Deputy Chief, two Chief Parliamentary Secretaries, one Chairman of Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation and one Deputy Chairman of State Planning Board. Also, his stint at top positions in the party at the national level gives him a subtle connection with the Congress rank and file.
“Nobody knows the BJP candidate, even if he is from Kangra district. Compared to this, Anand Sharma is a known personality at the national level. He has done so much for the area, when he was a Minister in the Centre and was Rajya Sabha MP. So you can imagine how much he can contribute if he becomes Lok Sabha MP from Kangra,” said Deputy Chief, Kewal Singh Pathania.
“He is a very good orator and has a good grasp of issues of the state and centre. The electorate in Kangra are politically aware and they know that Sharma can raise the voice of the area very well in Parliament,” added Pathania, who represents Shahpur in the State Assembly.
Compared to Sharma, BJP nominee Bhardwaj has covered much ground in the tough constituency after the declaration of his ticket, much before Congress fielded Anand Sharma.
His campaign revolves around ‘Ek Baar Phir Modi Sarkar’ and some local issues that the BJP vows to solve in different areas, including those in the remote belt of Chamba.
More so, the BJP banks on the psyche of the electorate in Kangra-Chamba and is confident that they will reject the 'outsider' in the Lok Sabha contest. Yet, the question that stares Bhardwaj in his entire campaign is the non-performance of the sitting MP, Kishen Kapoor, whose Lok Sabha ticket was axed this time.
“Changing candidates is a part of politics. The entire BJP cadre is working hard for the party nominee who belongs to the constituency. Not only in Kangra, people in entire Himachal are voting for BJP in the name of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. This Lok Sabha election would be a repeat of 2014 and 2019, when we got all the four Lok Sabha seats in Himachal,” said State BJP Chief, Dr Rajeev Bindal.
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