Constituency Watch Hamirpur: Anurag Thakur seeks 5th Lok Sabha term from BJP bastion

Tribune News Service

Pratibha Chauhan

Shimla, May 9

Having won four consecutive Lok Sabha elections, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur is seeking re-election from the Hamirpur parliamentary seat, considered a BJP bastion.

Despite being termed a product of dynastic politics, as his father has remained chief minister twice, Anurag has carved a niche for himself in national politics. Having headed Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha, the youth wing of the BJP, Anurag has emerged as a powerful minister, who enjoys the confidence of both PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.

He had won the 2019 parliamentary poll with a margin of 3.99 lakh votes, defeating former Congress Minister Ram Lal Thakur. Hamirpur is perceived to be a BJP citadel as the party has won the seat 11 times, including thrice by his father PK Dhumal.

The Congress candidate Satpal Raizada, a former MLA who lost the last Vidhan Sabha elections from Una, has been fielded by the Congress. The Congress was keen to field a heavyweight like Mukesh Agnihotri against Anurag but with the Deputy Chief Minister declining to contest citing personal reasons, Congress was left with no choice but to field Raizada.

The delay in announcing the candidate too gave the BJP a head start but with Hamirpur being the home turf of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu it remains to be seen if his stature will give Congress added advantage.

Incidentally, out of the 17 Assembly segments under Hamirpur seat, the Congress had won 10 seats, BJP five and two Independents in the 2022 Assembly elections. Under the changed political scenario following revolt by six Congress MLAs in February 2024, bypoll are being held in four segment of Sujanpur and Barsar (Hamirpur) and Gagret and Kutlehar (Una) along with the parliamentary polls on June 1. Now it remains to be seen if the changed scenario will further help the BJP which has fielded the four Congress disqualified MLAs on its ticket.

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