Hours earlier than the nomination deadline for the Himachal Pradesh elections ended Tuesday, the Congress lastly introduced its candidate for Hamirpur seat. With almost 14 candidates vying for a ticket, and the tussle over it within the open, the social gathering zeroed in on Pushpendra Verma on the final minute, with Hamirpur the one one remaining of the 68 seats for which a nominee had not been declared by the social gathering.
A physician by career, Verma is the son of former state minister Ranjit Singh.
One of many contenders who stored Congress leaders roiling for a while was youth face Ashish Sharma, who joined the social gathering solely final week. Often called a neighborhood “gau rakshak”, Sharma was within the BJP earlier than leaving it after being denied a ticket. Because the Congress district unit, other than Seva Dal leaders and the social gathering’s youth wing, raised a banner of revolt over the potential for the “saffron” outsider getting a ticket, the social gathering’s Himachal Pradesh in-charge, Rajeev Shukla, held a gathering with Sharma on Friday. Quickly after, Sharma introduced that he would contest from Hamirpur as an Unbiased.
Congress election in-charge and former state unit chief Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, who hails from Hamirpur and is claimed to have sizeable cadre assist within the district, demanded a say within the candidate choice. The others within the operating – former MLA Kuldeep Singh Pathania (who fought from Hamirpur final time, and misplaced); Anita Verma, an ex-MLA and ex-All India Mahila Congress president, Rohit Sharma, a lawyer; and senior vice-president of the social gathering state unit, Sunil Sharma Bittoo – had been all seen as Sukhu’s supporters.
Nonetheless, the social gathering didn’t need to danger any dissension from the camp led by Congress Himachal president and Sukhu’s rival Pratibha Singh, which batted for its personal candidate.
Pushpendra Verma, a member of the state medical affiliation who’s common for the social work he did within the area, particularly throughout Covid, lastly seems to have emerged as a consensus candidate.
Social gathering leaders admitted that the delay within the announcement was to make sure that the aggrieved candidates didn’t get a window to leap ship to different events, or battle as Independents.
The BJP’s Narendra Thakur gained Hamirpur final time, defeating the Congress’s Kuldeep Singh Pathania by round 7,000 votes. In 2012, the BJP’s former CM, Prem Kumar Singh Dhumal, had gained the seat. The BJP has fielded Thakur once more this time.