Veteran eyes third stint

Shimla, April 22

Hoping to cash in on the national sentiment for having fought in the 1962, 1965 and 1971 wars, Army man-turned-politician Col Dhani Ram Shandil (retd), 78, is slugging it out to make his re-entry into Parliament.

The Congress chose to field him from the Shimla Reserved Lok Sabha seat considering the fact that he enjoys impeccable integrity, is a familiar face and well known in the constituency, having won two parliamentary elections earlier.

A mild-mannered politician, the sitting MLA from Solan is credited with being judicious and fair in distribution of the MPLAD funds in his earlier stints. Age factor and the fact that the BJP is in power in Himachal may go against him. The saffron party has fielded a much younger Suresh Kashyap, also a sitting legislator.

The retired Colonel took to politics when he joined the Himachal Vikas Congress (HVC), the outfit floated by ex-telecom minister Sukh Ram. Despite a late starter, he won two Lok Sabha elections, once on an HVC ticket in 1999 and later as a Congress nominee in 2004. — TNS