Vikramaditya among shortlisted nominees

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune Need Service

Shimla, March 13       

The Congress today shortlisted two names each for finalisation of candidates for the four LS constituencies with the name of Vikramaditya Singh, son of former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, being shortlisted from Mandi.              

Senior Congress leaders today held an informal meeting at Chandigarh in the presence of AICC in-charge for Himachal Rajni Patil. Those present at the meeting included state Congress president Kuldeep Rathore, CLP leader Mukesh Agnihotri, former state president Sukhwinder Sukhu and former ministers GS Bali and Sudhir Sharma.                            

According to party sources, the name of Vikramaditya Singh, Shimla Rural MLA and son of Virbhadra Singh, had been shortlisted from Mandi. The other name from Mandi seat that has been forwarded to the AICC is that of former minister Kaul Singh, who had lost the last Assembly election from Darang in Mandi.  It is reliably learnt that names of Sudhir Sharma and Kangra MLA Pawan Kajal has been shortlisted from Kanga segment. While Sharma, a minister in Virbhadra regime had lost the Assembly poll from Dharamsala, Kajal is an OBC leader who is the MLA from Kangra seat.              

Congress seems to have taken caste and regional considerations into account while zeroing down on probables. In case of Hamirpur, the two names that have been short listed are that of Abhishek Rana, son of Sujanpur MLA Rajinder Rana and former state Congress president Sukhwinder Sukhu. The name of Col Dhani Ram Shandil (retd), who is an MLA from Solan, has been shortlisted from Shimla. The other name is that of Vinod Sultanpuri, son of six-time MP KD Sultanpuri.