Himachal CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu hails from the Hamirpur district and Deputy CM, Mukesh Agnihotri is from the Una district in the Hamirpur Parliamentary constituency, the same constituency where Union Minister Anurag Thakur, four times MP in a row is seeking re-election now.
Stakes are high for Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Deputy Chief Minister, Mukesh Agnihotri in Hamirpur Parliamentary constituency, which has elected BJP nominees over the last 26 years and from where four times MP in a row, Union Minister Anurag Thakur is seeking re-election on polls slated for June 1.
The Chief Minister hails from Hamirpur district and the Deputy Chief Minister from Una district, which are part of Hamirpur Parliamentary constituency.
While BJP gave three Chief Ministers to the state in the past, all of whom belonged to different districts-Shanta Kumar (two times CM) from Kangra, Prem Kumar Dhumal (two times) from Hamirpur district and Jai Ram Thakur from Mandi district- it is for the first time that any Congress Chief Minister hails from Hamirpur district or lower areas of Himachal Pradesh.
Among Congress CMs in the past, Virbhadra Singh (six times CM) and Thakur Ram Lal hailed from Shimla district and the founder CM, Dr YS Parmar belonged to Sirmaur district.
The Congress worry begins with the delay in choosing the party candidate against Anurag Thakur.
The Chief Minister and the State Congress had forwarded the name of a former MLA from Una, Satpal Raizada, who lost the Assembly elections in 2022, but the party's high command had reservations over it.
The high command wanted a stronger candidate and had since asked the Deputy CM to think about his daughter Aastha Agnihotri’s candidature. To this, Aastha politely refused, citing personal reasons.
Amid this endless search for candidates by the ruling Congress, BJP and Anurag Thakur have covered much ground in the run-up to Lok Sabha polls. The BJP had declared Anurag Thakur’s name from Hamirpur more than a month ago.
The Congress party drew strength from the fact that BJP had almost been wiped out in Hamirpur district in the 2022 elections, with Congress winning four out of five seats and the fifth one going to an independent, and Una too restricting BJP to one out of five seats, has not been able to retain the same Say in the area 15 months later, despite CM and Deputy CM coming from the two districts.
Four out of six Congress rebels in the state are from Hamirpur and Una districts (two each), while one of the three Independent MLAs, who have submitted their resignation from the Assembly, also represents the Hamirpur Assembly segment.
“The Congress is strong in the field and is working out a poll strategy accordingly. The Chief Minister commands much respect among people in his home district.
Along with his influence as a leader with a lot of personal touch on issues of public welfare and the state government’s performance in 15 months of rule in HP, he will also win majority votes for the Congress party in HP in the Lok Sabha polls and the Assembly by-polls,” said Principal Media Advisor to the CM, Naresh Chauhan.
The Chief Minister, who is focussing much on the Assembly by-polls in the interest of his government’s stability in Himachal Pradesh after the recent rebellion wherein Congress lost six rebel MLAs, is trying to corner the rebels by alleging that they revolted because of money coming into play at the instance of BJP.
All said and done, the poll outcome in the Hamirpur Parliamentary constituency is certainly going to impact the influence of the CM and Deputy CM in politics within Congress shortly, with a lot of hobnobbing going on after the rebellion.
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