Himachal Pradesh Congress gets into poll mode

Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 17

Getting into the election mode, Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) president Pratibha Singh appointed in-charge for four Parliamentary constituencies today.

Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri has been appointed in-charge for Hamirpur constituency, Agriculture Minister Chander Kumar for Kangra constituency, Education Minister Rohit Thakur for Shimla constituency and PWD Minister Vikramaditya Singh for Mandi constituency.

Industries Minister Harshwardhan Chauhan has been appointed Publicity and Publication in-charge and Revenue Minister Jagat Singh Negi been given the charge of Coordination committee.

Having named the in-charge for the committees and for parliamentary constituencies, the state Congress would now look to finalise its candidates as soon as possible. The BJP has already taken a lead over the Congress on this front by naming two candidates — Anurag Thakur from Hamirpur and the Suresh Kashyap from Shimla.

“It doesn’t matter if they have named the candidates ahead of us. Polling in the state will be held in the last phase, so there’s still a lot of time,” said a Congress official.

The exercise to finalise the candidates, which got pushed back a little by the implosion within the party, has already started. HPCC president Pratibha Singh, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri met informally a few days back to discuss the potential candidates.

“Some names were discussed informally but the actual discussion would take place at the meeting of the screening committee to be held in Delhi shortly. The names of the big leaders who could contest the elections would be added to the list in the screening committee. And then the list would be sent to the central election committee for the final approval,” the official said.

The screening committee, chaired by Bhakta Charan Dass, comprises Pratibha Singh, Sukhu, Agnihotri, AICC incharge for Himachal Rajeev Shukla and two other AICC nominees.

Cautioning that it would be premature to float any name at the moment, he hinted that the changed political equation in the state after the disqualification of six Congress MLAs has ruled out the possibility of fielding any sitting MLA for the Lok Sabha contest.

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