Himachal ex-MLA Rakesh Kalia leaves BJP, may be picked by Congress for Gagret bypoll

Pratibha Chauhan

Shimla, April 18

The chances of the Congress fielding three-time former MLA Rakesh Kalia from Gagret in Una for the Assembly bypoll have brightened as he has formally returned to the party fold, which he had quit after being denied the ticket for the Assembly poll in 2022.

Party surveys favour him

• Unhappy over Cong decision to deny him ticket in 2022, Kalia joined the BJP
• Congress surveys have indicated that Kalia is the strongest candidate to take on rebel Chaitnaya

Perturbed over the party’s decision to deny him the ticket in 2022, he joined the BJP even though he was not given the party ticket. With new political alignments emerging in Gagret following sitting Congress MLA Chaitanya Sharma cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha poll in February and eventually joining the BJP, Kalia has returned to the Congress fold.

Kalia has also remained an AICC secretary and Chief Parliamentary Secretary during the Virbhadra-led Congress regime. Kalia had won on the Congress ticket twice from the Chintpurni Assembly segment, which was later renamed Gagret. Kalia had also won from the Gagret Assembly segment once.

Even though the Congress is yet to finalise its candidates for the Kangra and Hamirpur Lok Sabha seats and for the six Assembly byelections, Kalia’s formal induction into the Congress yesterday has brightened his chances of being the party nominee for the bypoll in June. Party surveys as well as reports of senior state leaders have indicated that Kalia is the strongest candidate who could take on rebel Chaitnaya.

Apart from Kalia, Ram Lal Markanda, who made his political debut as an MLA on the Himachal Vikas Congress (HVC) ticket in 1998, could also join the Congress, provided he is given the party ticket from the tribal seat of Lahaul and Spiti. Even though Markanda was a minister in the last BJP regime, with the saffron party fielding Congress rebel Ravi Thakur for the bypoll, he is keen to contest on the Congress ticket. The central election committee of the Congress is likely to take a call on the ticket finalisation for the six Assembly byelections due to disqualification of the six rebel Congress MLAs who had cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha poll, which the BJP won despite having only 25 MLAs in the 68-member Vidhan Sabha.