Ticket aspirants gear up to stake claim to Nalagarh seat

Ambika Sharma

Solan, June 10

With the byelection for the Nalagarh Assembly seat having been announced, ticket aspirants are gearing up to stake their claim to ticket in the BJP and the Congress.

The seat fell vacant after the independent MLA KL Thakur resigned in March after lending support to BJP’s Rajya Sabha candidate. His resignation was accepted by the Speaker of the state Assembly on June 3. Thakur joined the BJP later and is now hoping to get the party ticket.

Thakur had remained the district president of the BJP in the past. He had contested from Nalagarh as an Independent candidate after the BJP denied him the ticket in the 2022 Assembly elections. He won the seat by 13,264 votes defeating Congress candidate Hardeep Bawa and BJP candidate Lakhwinder Rana, who had finished a poor third.

The BJP had secured a margin of over 39,000 votes from the Nalagarh Assembly constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha (LS) elections, which was among the highest margins across the state. Though this margin was reduced to 15,000 votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, it is among the highest winning margins secured from Shimla Lok Sabha seat by the BJP.

In the ruling Congress, Hardeep Bawa, who has contested two Assembly elections unsuccessfully, is again vying to secure the party ticket.

With the BJP losing four of the six Vidhan Sabha byelections after giving tickets to turncoats, it remains to be seen if they would field a fresh face or repose faith on Thakur who has been in and out of the party.

The Nalagarh seat had witnessed interesting developments in the past three Assembly elections as all three candidates switched parties or contested as Independents when their parties denied them the ticket. Former Congress MLA Lakhwinder Rana had joined the BJP weeks before the 2022 Assembly elections. This move, however, failed to pay him as he finished a poor third after Congress’ Hardeep Bawa. It remains to be seen if he would once again stake claim for the BJP ticket.

KL Thakur had been elected as an MLA from Nalagarh in 2012 on BJP ticket. He lost the subsequent 2017 Vidhan Sabha election and contested the 2022 elections as an Independent candidate after the BJP denied him ticket. Bawa, too, had contested as an Independent candidate after the Congress denied him ticket in the 2017 Assembly elections. He, however, fought the 2022 Assembly elections on the Congress ticket and lost.

Six MLAs to take oath on June 12

• The six newly elected MLAs, who won the byelections, will take oath in the Vidhan Sabha on June 12
• While Rakesh Kalia (Gagret), Vivek Sharma (Kutlehar), Anuradha Rana (Lahaul-Spiti) and Ranjit Rana (Sujanpur) won on the Congress ticket, Sudhir Sharma (Dharamsala) and ID Lakhanpal (Barsar) won the byelections on the BJP ticket