Congress meet today to build consensus on Himachal candidates

Subhash Rajta

Shimla, April 5

The Congress will hold a meeting in New Delhi tomorrow to build a consensus on the names of candidates for the four parliamentary and six Assembly seats. The meeting will be attended by the members of the coordination committee, AICC general secretary KC Venugopal and the AICC in-charge for Himachal Rajeev Shukla.

Pratibha, Asha, Dayal Pyari in race

• HPCC president Pratibha Singh is almost certain to contest from the Mandi Lok Sabha constituency
• The party may field Asha Kumari, veteran Congress leader from Chamba and five-time MLA, from the Kangra seat
• From the Shimla constituency, Dayal Pyari of Sirmaur is among the shortlisted candidates
• For the Hamirpur constituency, the Congress is most likely to bet on Satpal Raizada, former MLA from Una

“The meeting will be held tomorrow morning at the residence of Venugopal. In the meeting, attempt will be made to firm up the names of the shortlisted candidates. Thereafter, these names will be sent to the Central Election Committee,” said the Congress sources.

Currently, three woman candidates are among the frontrunners for ticket from three Parliamentary constituencies. While HPCC president Pratibha Singh is almost certain to contest from the Mandi parliamentary constituency, Asha Kumari, the veteran Congress leader from Chamba who has been a five-time MLA, could be the party’s pick from the Kangra Parliamentary constituency. From the Shimla Parliamentary constituency, Dayal Pyari from Sirmaur is among the shortlisted candidates. From the Hamirpur Lok Sabha constituency, the Congress is most likely to bet on Satpal Raizada, former Una MLA.

Even as the candidature of Pratibha Singh and Raizada seems to be a done deal, barring any last-minute hiccup, the party seems to be juggling its options from the Kangra and the Shimla parliamentary constituency. Given that Asha Kumari is from Chamba, which has just four assembly constituencies as against 13 of Kangra in the Kangra Parliamentary constituency, the party may feel tempted to field someone from Kangra.

In the Shimla constituency, Amit Nanda, president of the party’s SC wing, and former legislator Sohan Lal are the other leading contenders. Besides, there are rumours about the Congress trying to lure Virender Kashyap, the former BJP MP from Shimla Parliamentary constituency, from the saffron party and field him from Shimla. However, there’s a feeling in the party that his inclusion could lead to resentment among the party workers.