Himachal: Congress rebels Rajinder Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal meet Prem Kumar Dhumal, seek support for Assembly bypoll

Hamirpur, March 31

Congress rebels Rajinder Rana (Sujanpur) and Inder Dutt Lakhanpal (Barsar) met former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal at his residence in Sameerpur village here. Rana was a Dhumal loyalist before he joined the Congress in 2014 for contesting the Lok Sabha election from Hamirpur against BJP candidate Anurag Thakur. Later, he defeated Dhumal, who was BJP’s chief ministerial candidate, in the Assembly election by a margin of 1,919 votes, paving the way for the installation of Jai Ram Thakur as the Chief Minister of the state.

Rana and Lakhanpal met Dhumal to seek his blessings and guidance for the byelections. They had a long discussion with him for over two hours and discussed the election strategy to ensure their victory in the byelections and the Lok Sabha elections.

Rana and Lakhanpal said that it was a courtesy call on the senior BJP leader. They added that Dhumal had long experience in politics and his valuable guidance would help them achieve victory in the elections.

Earlier, Jai Ram Thakur visited former Hamirpur MLA Ashish Sharma’s home near Bohani village yesterday. He was on his way to Mandi from Gagret where he attended a welcome function for BJP candidate Chaitanya Sharma. Jai Ram said that the Speaker of Vidhan Sabha was delaying the acceptance of the resignations of three Independent MLAs to save the government. He added that the Congress government had lost majority in the Vidhan Sabha and the Chief Minister should accept the fact.