LS polls: Congress names Anand Sharma, Satpal Raizada as candidates from Kangra, Hamirpur
The All-India Congress Committee (AICC) on Tuesday named former Union minister Anand Sharma and former Una MLA Satpal Raizada as their candidates from Kangra and Hamirpur parliamentary constituencies respectively for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
The All-India Congress Committee (AICC) on Tuesday named former Union minister Anand Sharma and former Una MLA Satpal Raizada as their candidates from Kangra and Hamirpur parliamentary constituencies respectively for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Sharma is also a founder member of the Congress Party’s students wing the National Students Union of India (NSUI). Sharma, who was born in Shimla in 1953, was also the deputy leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha from June 2014 to 2022.
The party has earlier fielded candidates state minister Vikramaditya Singh and Kasauli MLA Vinod Sultanpuri from the Shimla and Mandi constituencies respectively.
Satpal Raizada, as a Congress candidate from Una Assembly segment in 2017 defeated BJP stalwart Satpal Singh Satti by a margin of 3,196 votes. However, in the 2022 assembly elections, Satti defeated him by a slender margin of 1,736 votes.
BJP has already named its four candidates in Himachal. While sitting MPs Anurag Thakur and Suresh Kashyap will contest from Hamirpur and Shimla respectively, the saffron party has fielded state vice-president Rajeev Bhardwaj and actress Kangana Ranaut from Kangra and Mandi parliamentary constituencies respectively.
In Hamirpur, the Congress faces a formidable challenge in the form of Union minister and sitting MP Anurag Thakur. The seat is a family bastion, with father and former CM Prem Kumar Dhumal having also been elected from Hamirpur in 1989 and 2007.
Thakur himself has emerged victorious from the seat in the last three elections. He defeated Congress’ Ram Lal Thakur by a margin of nearly four lakh votes in the 2019 elections.
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