BJP rebel Rakesh Chaudhary seeks Congress ticket for Dharamsala bypoll

Dharamsala, April 10

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BJP rebel Rakesh Chaudhary has sought the Congress ticket to fight the Dharamsala Assembly byelection. Chaudhary was the BJP candidate in the 2022 Assembly elections. He resigned from the BJP after the party fielded Congress turncoat Sudhir Sharma for the Dharamsala byelection. He started his election campaign from the Tang area of Dharamsala yesterday.

Chaudhary, while talking to mediapersons, said that he had urged the Congress for ticket to fight the Dharamsala byelection against Sudhir Sharma. He added that if the Congress did not grant him ticket, he would contest as an Independent candidate.

Triangular contest

• Dharamsala is set to witness a triangular contest irrespective of whether Chaudhary contests the byelection on the Congress ticket or as an Independent candidate
• If he contests the byelection as an Independent candidate, he can affect the calculations of both Congress as well as BJP candidates

Chaudhary, an OBC leader of Dharamsala, first contested the byelections from the constituency in 2019 as an Independent candidate after sitting BJP candidate Kishan Kapoor was elected MP. He had secured around 16,000 votes while Congress candidate Vijay Inder Karan had got around 8,000 votes. BJP candidate Vishal Nehria had won the seat. In the 2022 Assembly elections, the BJP dropped Nehria and gave ticket to Chaudhary, who lost to Sudhir Sharma by a margin of about 3,000 votes.

Chaudhary relies heavily on OBC votes in Dharamsala. There is a sizable population of OBC voters in the constituency and Chaudhary expects their support in the byelection.

Asked about the ticket to Chaudhary, Congress working president Sanjay Awasthi said today that the party would take a decision soon. However, the party was wary of turncoats after the recent rebellion. The Congress was considering a candidate who would remain loyal in the face of any kind of allurement, he added.