Shimla: Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s wife Kamlesh Thakur is in the fray for the last lot of bypolls to be held in the state next month and is expected to buttress the ruling Congress’s image after a rebellion nearly brought down the government earlier this year.
Though the Congress failed to send its nominee Abhishek Manu Singhvi to the Rajya Sabha due to cross-voting in March, Sukhu managed to tide over the crisis, and is aiming to win back the maximum of the nine seats that were vacated by rebel MLAs.
Six of the nine seats were held by Congress MLAs — who were disqualified after the cross-voting — while the other three had Independents, supporting the Congress. These lawmakers also voted in BJP’s favour in the Rajya Sabha elections and later joined the party.
Results for the first six were declared on 4 June, where the Congress won four, and the BJP two.
For the next three vacated by the Independents, the Congress’s Kamlesh Thakur will contest from Dehra, Hardeep Baba will fight from Nalagarh and Pushpendra Verma from Hamirpur. The polls are scheduled to be held on 10 July.
A masters in political science from Government College, Chandigarh, Kamlesh has been a party member for over two decades and would manage affairs of the chief minister’s Nadaun Assembly seat, sources said.
She received public attention when Sukhu was sworn in as chief minister, but party sources said the decision to field her from Dehra was influenced by the fact that her parents lived there.
The 54-year-old is now up against former Independent-turned-BJP-candidate Hoshiyar Singh.
Incidentally, the Congress has never won the seat which was carved out after the delimitation exercise in 2010. Dehra was first represented by former BJP minister Ravinder Singh Ravi in 2012, but Hoshiyar Singh won Dehra in 2017 and the 2022 assembly elections as an Independent.
A senior Congress leader told ThePrint that Kamlesh’s name was finalised after a detailed survey and consultation with party leaders. “All ticket aspirants, senior Congress leaders of Dehra held a press conference Monday to announce that the party would work unitedly for any candidate it declares,” he said.
The CM told the media that his wife’s nomination was the high command’s decision. “I have to obey the party’s decision. This decision was taken considering the current political situation,” Sukhu said.
Sukhu and Kamlesh were married in 1998, after which she became a member of the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee.
Meanwhile, Kamlesh’s candidacy has, predictably, sparked the BJP’s usual criticism of nepotism in politics. Her opponent, Hoshiyar Singh, told the media that CM Sukhu and the Congress had ignored the people of Dehra, especially its women.
“Ignoring more than 40,000 women, he found only his wife to contest the bypoll? This is an insult to local women,” he added.
The other Independents who resigned with Singh and joined the BJP were Ashish Sharma and K.L. Thakur. These two are also fighting as BJP candidates from their previous seats Hamirpur and Nalagarh, respectively.
Currently, the Congress has 38 seats in the 68-member assembly and the BJP has 27.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
Also read: Changed seat, short campaign & ‘anti-BJP’ mood — ex-MP Dilip Ghosh lists reasons for Medinipur loss