Will Rajinder Rana be lucky again, win Sujanpur seat?

Pratibha Chauhan

Shimla, April 19

Will Rajinder Rana, BJP candidate for the Sujanpur Assembly byelection, be lucky again? He had won the 2022 Assembly election by a slender margin of 399 votes while he had defeated Prem Kumar Dhumal in the 2012 Assembly elections from Sujanpur by 1,919 votes.

The changed political situation in the state has brought Rana on the doorstep of his mentor and former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal for the sake of survival. Rana, a three-time MLA, is back in the BJP after remaining in the Congress for a little over a decade. He had parted ways with the BJP in 2012 and won the Assembly election as an Independent candidate from the Sujanpur segment in Hamirpur district after he was denied ticket.

In 2014, Rana had resigned as Independent MLA to contest the Hamirpur Lok Sabha election on Congress ticket against Anurag Thakur to settle a political score. Due to his proximity to the then Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, Rana agreed to resign as Independent MLA on the condition that his wife would be given Congress ticket for the Sujanpur Assembly byelection following his resignation. However, the big risk Rana took to take on the might of Dhumals was unsuccessful.

Rana, who was elected an Independent MLA in the 2012 elections, had lost to Anurag in the 2014 parliamentary elections and his wife Anita Rana also tasted defeat. However, in the 2017 Assembly elections, Rana became a hero as he made a major political upset by defeating Dhumal, who was the BJP’s chief ministerial face, by a margin of 1,919 votes.

Rana rebelled against Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s leadership and along with five other MLAs voted against Congress candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi in the Rajya Sabha election on February 27. This paved the way for the disqualification of all six MLAs under the Anti Defection Law and they are now seeking re-election on BJP ticket.

Seeking Dhumal’s blessings to win the Assembly byelection on BJP ticket is certainly not a mean task. Though Rana visited Dhumal’s house in Sujanpur after getting BJP ticket, it is not known whether he would get the former Chief Minister’s wholehearted support.

Party sources say that even if Dhumal and Anurag bury the hatchet with Rana, it is not clear whether the electorate of Sujanpur will support him wholeheartedly. The fact that Rana had won the 2022 Assembly election by a slender margin of 399 votes cannot be overlooked.