Agnihotri frontrunner from Hamirpur seat

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 18

Even as the Congress Screening Committee is yet to recommend the names of candidates, several leaders from Hamirpur today met the party high command, supporting the candidature of CLP leader Mukesh Agnihotri.

Senior leaders, including former state Congress president Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, Ram Lal Thakur, both sitting MLAs, Rajya Sabha MP Viplove Thakur, former MLAs — Kuldeep Kumar, Rajesh Dharmani, Rakesh Kalia, Kuldeep Pathania, Una MLA Satpal Raizada, Suresh Kumar and Vivek Sharma, who had unsuccessfully contested the elections, along with others — met AICC in-charge Rajni Patil in Delhi today.

In a letter handed over to Patil, they pleaded that Agnihotri would be the strongest candidate to take on sitting BJP MP Anurag Thakur. The Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat comprises Hamirpur, Una and Bilaspur. Now, with so many sitting and former MLAs seeking ticket for a leader from Una, the high command will have to take this fact into account.

They urged the high command to give the ticket to a leader from Una this time as for the past 25 years, the party has been fielding candidates from either Hamirpur or Bilaspur, who never won. They also added that of the four Lok Sabha seats, Hamirpur had the highest Brahmin population. It is learnt that many leaders are opposing allocation of ticket to Abhiskeh Rana, son of Sujanpur MLA Rajinder Rana. It is Virbhadra Singh and CLP leader Mukesh Agnihotri, who have been supporting the candidature of Rana. Agnihotri and Sukhu are considered as strong candidates from Hamirpur.

As such, the final decision on Hamirpur and Mandi is yet to be taken. Some of them had met KC Venugopal, AICC general secretary, in Delhi yesterday. Sources said though the Congress Screening Committee, headed by Venugopal, met in Delhi yesterday, no final decision had been made on forwarding names to the Central Election Committee.

BJP awaits Cong list 

The BJP, which had  initially decided to field its sitting MPs from all the four Lok Sabha  seats, is having second thoughts. The party seems to have now adopted a  policy of wait and watch before finalising its candidates as it is  keenly awaiting the Congress list. The party’s screening committee is  yet to finalise the candidates. It is being felt that the BJP could  change the candidature of Mandi MP Ramswaroop in case the Congress  fields Virbhadra Singh or his son Vikramaditya Singh. Similarly, there  is serious thinking on changing Shanta Kumar and fielding someone else  as the former CM had initially declined to contest.