Himachal Pradesh Youth Congress chief loses ticket race to Kinnaur MLA

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New Delhi, October 22

Himachal Pradesh Congress president Pratibha Singh’s choice from Manali seat has been set aside by the party as evidenced in the third list of four candidates declared on Saturday for the upcoming state elections. Sources said Pratibha was batting for the party’s block president Hari Chand Sharma as the candidate in Manali, but the seat has gone to Bhuvneshwar Gaur, son of former minister Raj Kishan Gaur.

In another important move, the Congress overlooked the bid of state Youth Congress chief Nigam Bhandari in Kinnaur, handing over the seat to sitting MLA Jagat Singh Negi, a four-time MLA.

The Congress was finding it hard to deny Negi’s claim having re-nominated all its 20 sitting MLAs. Negi was the only MLA who had not been named in the previous two lists of 46 and 17 nominees.

The Himachal Youth Congress has lost big in ticket allocation in Himachal despite former national president Rahul Gandhi’s insistence on fielding younger leaders and also the party’s Udaipur ‘Chintan Shivir’ pledge of nominating 50 per cent candidates below 50 years of age in every election.

In the previous list too, Himachal Youth Congress leader Surjeet Bharmouri had lost the Bharmour bid to Thakur Singh Bharmouri even though the latter had lost the seat last time.

Likewise, Pankaj Kumar of state youth wing did not get the ticket from Shahpur where Pratibha’s loyalist Kewal Singh Pathania, who has lost two consecutive elections, managed to get declared as the nominee. In fact, late CM Virbhadra Singh’s constant support to Pathania from the segment was a major factor behind former Congress MLA Vijay Singh Mankotia’s alienation from the party. Himachal Youth Congress working president Yadupati Thakur also failed to get the ticket. He wanted to contest from Sarkaghat.

The party today nominated Yadvinder Goma from Jaisinghpur (SC) seat and Kirnesh Jung from Paonta Sahib. Of the 68 seats, 67 have been declared with only Hamirpur pending.