Himachal Pradesh Rajya Sabha nomination: Anand Sharma ‘deeply upset’, keeps cards close to chest

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, February 15

Resentment appears to be brewing in the Himachal Congress ranks over the latest nomination of the party to the Rajya Sabha with sources saying this is the first time that the party has fielded an outsider for Rajya Sabha election from the sensitive border state.

The Congress on Wednesday named Abhishek Manu Singhvi as its Himachal Rajya Sabha candidate.

The Tribune has also reliably learnt that senior Congress leader and member of the party’s highest decision-making body CWC Anand Sharma is deeply upset and hurt at the developments and is keeping his cards close to the chest.

Harsh Mahajan, who switched over to the BJP and filed his papers as a BJP candidate for the Rajya Sabha election from Himachal, is also learnt to be close to Anand Sharma, who was among frontrunners for the Rajya Sabha seat in the state.

It is learnt that Anand Sharma is in touch with a section of Himachal Congress MLAs, loyal to him, with all eyes on how the contest in the state between Harsh Mahajan and Congress candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi will play out.

Sources have told The Tribune that this is the first time that the Congress has nominated a non-Himachali for the Rajya Sabha election from the hilly state.

“There is great resentment over the Congress party breaking the tradition of sending a Himachali to the Rajya Sabha from the state. Anything can happen,” a Congress leader privately told The Tribune reacting to developments in Himachal where the BJP took the Congress by surprise by suddenly fielding Harsh Mahajan who had left the Congress for the saffron party a while ago.

Sources close to Anand Sharma said that lawmakers close to him are upset at “insult to the former minister”.

Sharma, meanwhile, is maintaining a stoic silence on the developments, and is said to have received phone calls from MLAs of his camp.

It will be equally important to watch the actions of some of the independent MLAs, currently supporting the Congress in the state.

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