Himachal bypoll: For Dharamsala bypoll, finding candidate uphill task for Congress

Lalit Mohan

Dharamsala, March 16

To win the Dharamsala Assembly byelection will be an uphill task for the ruling Congress. Local legislator Sudhir Sharma was among the six Congress MLAs who had rebelled against the state government and were disqualified from the Vidhan Sabha.

The six rebel MLAs have challenged their disqualification by the Assembly Speaker and are waiting for the Supreme Court verdict on their petition that will come up for hearing on Monday.

Sudhir told The Tribune, “We shall wait for the decision of the Supreme Court. However, I am also not afraid to contest elections.”

Dearth of leaders

• The Congress has no senior leader left in Dharamsala who can present a formidable challenge to Sudhir Sharma
• However, it is not clear whether Sudhir along with five other Congress rebels will join the BJP and what they are offered by the opposition party

The Congress will have to look for a formidable candidate for the Dharamsala Assembly byelection to challenge Sudhir, who has a strong base in the constituency. Sudhir had first contested the Assembly elections from the Dharamsala seat in 2012 after his constituency Baijnath was reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC). He defeated BJP candidate Kishan Kapoor though he faced the ‘outsider’ charge. From 2012 to 2017, he remained Minister for Town and Country Planning in the then Virbhadra Singh government. As minister, Sudhir brought various development projects in Dharamsala and created a big support base for himself.

Sudhir lost the 2017 Assembly elections from Dharamsala to BJP candidate Kishan Kapoor. In 2019, Kapoor was given ticket to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Kangra and he emerged victorious. As a result, when the Dharamsala Assembly byelection was announced, Sudhir refused to contest it and the Congress had to field a greenhorn, Vijay Inder Karan, from the seat. BJP candidate Vishal Nehria won the byelection while Vijay Inder Karan lost his deposit.

Sudhir contested the 2022 Assembly elections from Dharamsala on the Congress ticket and won. However, despite being the senior-most MLA from Kangra and former minister, he was not given a Cabinet berth. He along with other five other MLAs rebelled against the Congress government last month.

The biggest challenge for the Congress candidate in the byelection will be to counter the allegation of discrimination against Dharamsala and Kangra district by the state government. The issue of delay in the construction of the campus of the Central University of Himachal Pradesh (CUHP) in the constituency has already generated political heat.

The Congress government has not paid Rs 30 crore for the transfer of forestland at Jadrangal for the university campus. Residents of Dharamsala have been protesting over the issue for the past many months.