Rajya Sabha poll: Sukhu's close aide Anurag Sharma gets Congress ticket from Himachal

The Congress on Thursday announced Anurag Sharma as the party’s candidate for the Rajya Sabha seat from Himachal Pradesh, elections for which are scheduled to be held on March 16.

Sharma, a close confidante of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and District Congress Committee president of Kangra district, hails from Baijnath. He has been associated with the party organisation, particularly the Indian Youth Congress, since his college days.

His candidature has come as a surprise for many, as names of political heavyweights such as Anand Sharma and Pratibha Singh, as well as leaders from outside the state like Pawan Khera and Rajni Patil, had been doing the rounds in political circles.

Thursday is the last date for filing nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha election. A meeting of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) will be held on Thursday, after which Sharma will file his nomination papers.

Although the Congress has a comfortable majority of 40 members in the 68-member Himachal Pradesh Assembly, it remains to be seen whether the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will field its candidate, as it did in the last Rajya Sabha poll in February 2024, crafting a surprise victory.

Giving the ticket to a Brahmin leader from Kangra, the biggest and politically most significant district of Himachal Pradesh, is being viewed as a tactical move by the Congress.

Moreover, Sharma belongs to a political family, as his father remained a prominent Congress leader from the Baijnath Assembly segment in Kangra district.

Kangra is the largest district in Himachal Pradesh, with 15 Assembly segments. The Rajya Sabha seat is falling vacant on the completion of the term of Indu Goswami, who coincidentally also hails from the Baijnath area.

The BJP has 28 legislators in the Assembly, but it is uncertain whether it will field a candidate this time.

During the last Rajya Sabha election held on February 27, 2024, the BJP had sprung a surprise by fielding former Congress leader Harsh Mahajan, who had defected from the Congress, as its candidate.

Mahajan won after six Congress MLAs cross-voted, paving the way for his entry into the Rajya Sabha and ensuring the defeat of noted lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who has now been given a Rajya Sabha ticket from Telangana in the list released by the All India Congress Committee on Thursday morning.

Political and organisational career

Sharma joined the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) in 1994 and served as Kangra district general secretary for five years. He was appointed district Youth Congress general secretary in 2002 and state Youth Congress general secretary in 2006. Sharma also served as joint secretary in the state Congress committee from 2014 to 2019.

He is currently the District Congress Committee (DCC) president of Kangra and also the president of Billing Paragliding Association.