Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s wife, Kamlesh Thakur today filed her nomination papers for the forthcoming by-poll in the Dehra Assembly segment in Kangra district on July 10.
It is her first poll battle and the announcement of her candidature from Dehra by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) a couple of days ago surprised everyone even in the Congress party as she was not into politics.
“Women have a great role to play in the family and the society.
They can significantly contribute to politics and any other field,” said Kamlesh Thakur, encouraged by the response she got in Dehra after the announcement of her ticket. Thakur hails from the Dehra Assembly constituency.
She was accompanied by the Chief Minister, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Pradesh Congress Committee Chief, Pratibha Singh when she filed her nomination for the Assembly by-poll in Dehra.
Congress leader and front runner for the ticket, Dr Rajesh Sharma, who suffered a panic attack and had later declared to file two nominations, one as Independent and another on Congress ticket on June 21 when he was denied ticket to accommodate CM’s wife, also accompanied Kamlesh Thakur during her nomination.
It is learnt that Chief Minister Sukhu met Dr Rajesh in the morning to placate him and ensure his presence at the nomination. The move is said to be significant as Dr Rajesh had contested the 2022 Assembly election against Independent Hoshyar Singh, who is now BJP nominee, and had polled over 19000 votes, losing by around 4000 votes.
The Dehra Assembly segment fell vacant due to the resignation of Independent MLA, Hoshyar Singh, who is now seeking re-election on BJP’s ticket.
Hoshyar Singh and two other Independent MLAs, Ashish Sharma from Hamirpur and K L Thakur from Nalagarh had resigned from the Assembly and joined BJP after a strong revolt in ruling Congress by six MLAs, who were disqualified from the Assembly after they defied the party whip and remained absent from the House when the budget was to be passed.
The by-polls to the constituencies vacated by the disqualification of rebel Congress MLAs were held on June 1 along with Lok Sabha polls.
However, the by-polls to these three constituencies vacated by Independents- Dehra, Hamirpur and Nalagarh- could not be held with them because their resignations, which they submitted in March, were accepted after June 1.
Hoshyar Singh has won the Assembly poll twice as an Independent, in 2017 and 2022. His entry into the BJP has hurt the feelings of BJP leaders in the constituency, especially former minister, Ramesh Dhawala, who had contested the 2022 Assembly poll on a BJP ticket against Hoshyar Singh.
The unexpected entry of Congress CM’s wife Kamlesh Thakur in Dehra is likely to create more problems for him.
The Congress nominee for Hamirpur Assembly by-poll, Dr Pushpinder Verma also filed his nomination papers in the morning at Hamirpur.
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