Rajya Sabha poll: BJP springs a surprise, pits Harsh Mahajan against Abhishek Manu Singhvi in Himachal

Pratibha Chauhan

Shimla, February 15

The contest for a Rajya Sabha seat in Himachal has become interesting with the BJP springing a surprise by fielding former Congress minister Harsh Mahajan as its candidate for the seat, which has fallen vacant on the completion of the term of JP Nadda.

lacks numbers, eyeing cross-voting

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• HP has three RS seats with Indu Goswami and Sikander Kumar being MPs in the Upper House
• Election being held for third seat as BJP president JP Nadda’s term is ending in April this year
• BJP has only 25 MLAs in 68-member House against Cong’s 40 & 3 Independents; eyeing cross-voting

Despite having only 25 legislators in the 68-member House, the BJP is keen to make the contest interesting. The Congress has 40 MLAs and there are three Independents in the House. The Congress has fielded Supreme Court lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi (65), who filed his nomination today, the last date for filing of nomination. Polling will take place on February 27. The Congress is confident of a victory, but the BJP game plan will be to manage cross-voting to embarrass the government. Since the three Independent legislators — Hoshiyar Singh (Dehra), KL Thakur (Nalagarh) and Ashish Sharma (Hamirpur) — attended the Congress Legislature Party meeting last night, the Congress is hoping to get their support.

With Harsh Mahajan having defected to the BJP just before the 2022 Assembly elections, the BJP fielded him in the hope of getting votes of Congress legislators. BJP sources said Mahajan was learnt to have himself expressed his desire to contest the election and met JP Nadda in Delhi yesterday. “It was only yesterday that we too learnt of this development,” said a BJP leader.

“I am grateful to Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and other senior Congress leadership for having reposed faith in me and making me the candidate from Himachal,” said Singhvi after filing his nomination. CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, AICC in-charge for Himachal Rajeev Shukla, state Congress president Pratibha Singh, Speaker Kuldeep Pathania, ministers and party MLAs were present on the occasion.