Started canvassing late, Anand Sharma still optimistic of win from Kangra

Shimla, May 31

Congress candidate Anand Sharma had undertaken a well-planned election campaign in the Kangra Lok Sabha constituency though he was fighting elections after almost four decades and was a late entrant in the poll arena.

The Congress fielding Sharma from the Kangra seat had come as a surprise for most of the people as he had only contested the Assembly election from the Shimla (Urban) seat in 1984. He had remained a Rajya Sabha member for almost two decades and it was his good rapport with almost all state leaders that helped the Congress put up a united fight though he started campaigning quite late. He is optimistic about his victory on the seat considering the response he got while campaigning.

Sharma says that he has addressed 90 election meetings and travelled 8,000 km while covering many Assembly segments, devoting 16 hours everyday. “As Union Minister, I got several projects like the IIT-Mandi, NIFT-Kangra, two industrial estates at Kandrori and Pandoba, several cold storages for fruit growers under APEDA for the state,” he adds.

Sharma dismisses the “outsider” tag saying that as Union Minister he had worked for the entire country, including Himachal. “During my stint as External Affairs Minister, I got a passport office opened in Shimla as earlier people had to go to Chandigarh or Jalandhar for getting a passport,” he says.