Four times MP in a row, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting and Youth Affairs and Sports, Anurag Thakur faces former MLA of Congress, Satpal Raizada, a new entrant in the Lok Sabha poll battlefield in Hamirpur Parliamentary constituency.
Thakur, 49, hails from Hamirpur district, while Raizada, 53, is from Una district and had lost the Assembly poll from Una in the 2022 Assembly polls.
Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat includes Hamirpur, Bilaspur, and Una districts and two Assembly segments of Kangra district. It holds significance in Congress politics too, with Chief Minister, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu (Hamirpur) and Deputy Chief Minister, Mukesh Agnihotri (Una). More so, four out of six Congress rebels, who revolted and were disqualified from the Assembly, were from the Hamirpur Parliamentary constituency, two each from Hamirpur and Una districts.
Two of the three Independents, who have resigned from the Assembly and are still waiting for acceptance, also come from the Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat, one of them represents the Hamirpur Assembly segment and another Dehra.
All this has however confused the whole political scenario in the Hamirpur Parliamentary constituency, with by-polls to four Assembly constituencies also being held simultaneously on June 1.
For the state Congress government and Chief Minister, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, more prestige is attached to the Assembly by-polls in Sujanpur, Badsar, Gagret, and Kutlehar in the Lok Sabha seat as it would lend stability to the government in Himachal Pradesh. However, for Thakur, the result of the Lok Sabha battle carries much meaning this time as if he is elected for the fifth time in a row, it would further elevate his stature within the BJP at the national level.
Thakur, who was first elected as MP in 2008 in a by-poll, after his father, former Chief Minister, Prem Kumar Dhumal vacated the seat to become the CM of Himachal Pradesh for the second time, has worked hard all these years and has won every election with a good margin. He had won the 2019 Lok Sabha poll from Congress by a margin of over 3.99 lakh votes.
Locals in Hamirpur do say that anyone representing a constituency continuously for four times has a natural anti-incumbency. Yet, it’s in the Hamirpur Parliamentary constituency only that the slogan of ‘One Vote for PM and one Vote for CM’ is being whispered all around by the strategic minds in Congress and BJP.
Mainly because the people of Sujanpur (which is now going to a by-poll) had chosen Rajinder Rana over BJP’s CM face and former two times CM, Prem Kumar Dhumal in the 2017 Assembly polls and had suffered a great loss after defeating CM face. The BJP came into power in the state but Dhumal lost and with this Hamirpur also lost its Chief Ministerial face.
So in 2024, the political talk is that people should not repeat the mistake they committed in 2017.
In the backdrop of all this, Chief Minister, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has tried to hit the voter psyche by launching a strong attack on the rebels with loud allegations of a ‘money game’ in play at the instance of the BJP.
“I have full faith that people’s power will defeat the money power,” he said in Hamirpur while campaigning for the Lok Sabha candidate of Congress, Satpal Raizada.
Union minister, Anurag Thakur, on the other hand, is confident about his victory in Hamirpur, holding that it is Modi’s Karisma that people were supporting BJP. He said the country needs continuity and stability and that’s under Modi rule.
On a question about how much challenge he faces with the presence of the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister in his constituency, Thakur told media persons, “I had contested election earlier also when there was Congress government in Himachal and Virbhadra Singh was Chief Minister, yet his wife lost the election in Mandi. But I won.”
The Congress party on the other hand finds Raizada, a close confidant of the Chief Minister, a potential face, who will certainly make ground for him in his first Lok Sabha battle.
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