Satpal Singh Raizada intensifies campaign in Hamirpur constituency

Rajesh Sharma

UNA, APRIL 15

Former Una MLA Satpal Singh Raizada, who is also a member of the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee, has intensified his poll campaign from the Hamirpur parliamentary segment.

Though the party has not officially declared Raizada candidate for the Lok Sabha seat, he has received nod from the state Congress leadership, which has recommended his name to the party high command for the ticket.

Raizada took the political stage as a Congress candidate from Una Assembly segment in 2017 when he defeated BJP stalwart Satpal Singh Satti by a margin of 3,196 votes. From 2017 to 2022, Raizada sat in the opposition benches and in the 2022 Assembly elections, Satti took revenge and defeated him by a slender margin of 1,736 votes.

The BJP has already declared the candidature of sitting MP and Union minister Anurag Thakur from the Hamirpur. In 2017, Thakur had won the seat for the fourth time in a row, starting from the by-election to the seat in 2008. He won the 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Hamirpur, followed by a massive victory in the last general elections in which he secured a lead of about 4 lakh votes against his opponent, Ram Lal Thakur of the Congress.

Talking to the Tribune, Raizada said he was a fighter and was unfazed by the poll achievements of Anurag Thakur. He said Anurag and his father Prem Kumar Dhumal had represented the parliamentary segment for almost two-and-a-half decades, but they have failed to make any significant contribution in the area, adding that after 15 years in power, Anurag has nothing to speak regarding his achievements and is telling the people to vote for him in the name of Narendra Modi.

Hamirpur parliamentary segment consists of 17 Assembly segments, which include all five segments of Una district, five from Hamirpur, four from Bilaspur, two from Kangra and one Assembly segment from Mandi district.

Till date, Una district has given only one Lok Sabha MP, which was Maj Gen Bikram Singh, who won the 1999 election on the Congress ticket. For the last 25 years, Una district has been giving a lead to the BJP candidate. Since Satpal Raizada is from Una district, he says he will be able to garner the votes from his home district in his favour.

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