Congress hopes Sultanpuri will repeat father’s feat, wrest Shimla from BJP

Tribune News Service

Ambika Sharma

Solan, April 28

The Congress has fielded its Kasauli MLA Vinod Sultanpuri from the Shimla Lok Sabha seat against sitting MP and BJP candidate Suresh Kashyap. Vinod’s father Krishan Dutt Sultanpuri had won the Shimla seat six times. Everyone is keen to see whether Vinod could follow in his father’s footsteps and win the Shimla Lok Sabha election. Krishan Dutt Sultanpuri had won the Shimla Lok Sabha seat six consecutive times from 1980 to 1998. He remained unbeatable and maintained the dominance of the Congress on the seat for decades.

The Shimla seat was a Congress bastion but the BJP won it in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP has won the seat three consecutive times (2009, 2014 and 2019) after that.

The Congress is hoping that Vinod Sultanpuri will pose a tough challenge to Kashyap, who is trying to retain the seat for the second time.

The Congress has four of five MLAs in Solan district while the BJP has the support of lone Independent MLA from Nalagarh KL Thakur, who had recently resigned from the Assembly and joined the party. The Congress also has seven of the eight MLAs in Shimla district while BJP has only one MLA.

Kashyap is expected to give the BJP lead in his native district Sirmaur. The party has two of the five MLAs in the district. The BJP is banking on the support of the dominant Hattee community, which was granted the Scheduled Tribe status by the Union Government. The Himachal High Court has put on hold the Scheduled Tribe status to the Hattees.

While Kashyap is well entrenched in the constituency, Vinod Sultanpuri is yet to make his presence felt in all 17 Assembly constituencies constituting the Lok Sabha seat. With the support of 14 of the 18 MLAs in the Shimla Lok Sabha seat, the Congress hopes to give a tough fight to the BJP.

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