By: Hema D
Shimla: In her first interaction with the media in Shimla after declaration of election tickets, Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee Chief Viplove Thakur said today that the Congress will woo disgruntled ticket seekers with a promise of some posts, after elections.
“Dissidence of some candidates after announcement of tickets was expected and is not new. The Congress will reach out to them and we will give them some position in the mainstream (party) after government formation.” However she refused to reveal the course of action in case the dissidents decided to contest as independent candidates. “We will cross the bridge when we come to it”, she quipped.
Reacting to allegations that in order to ensure ticket for her brother Manu Sharma from Jaswan, she compromised on tickets of sitting MLA, Thakur said the tickets have been strictly allotted on the basis of their ability to win.
She strongly defended allotment of tickets to relatives of party members and said, “Of the 65 candidates, only three are relatives of party men which is not a large number and they have been brought up in a political environment. They have been a part of party activities and campaigns since childhood and are not new to politics.” Including her brother Manu Sharma, Sukh Ram’s son Anil Sharma from Mandi (Sadar), Chander Kumar’s son Neeraj Bharti from Guler and Sat Mahajan’s son Ajay Mahajan from Nurpur, are in the list of relatives of influential leaders who got the tickets. Interestingly, the candidates Nand Lal, a SPG guard who has replaced cabinet minister Singhi Ram (Rampur) and Prakash Karad son of Gandhi Family’s chef who has replaced Deputy Speaker Dharam Pal Thakur (Arki) have been rewarded for their service to the Gandhi family.
She refused to divulge the Congress’s Chief Ministerial candidate. She said that though BJP has projected Dhumal as the CM, the Congress will go to polls under the leadership of present CM, Virbhadra Singh. “And as per the Congress’ tradition, the decision of next CM will be taken only after consultation with MLAs, post election.”
Thakur said that the party has fulfilled the promises mentioned in the last manifesto and the manifesto for this election would be released soon. “Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Digvijay Singh, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Sheila Dixit and off course Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would be campaigning in Himachal between December 11 and 15 for the party,” she said.
Gud stry…keep it up.
Althought Ms Takur says only 3 candidates are the relatives, but there are 5-6 candidates who have been preferred over others
The talks of meritocracy by Rahul Gandhi appears to be a big joke in Himachal elections.
Why do we always see same old names in these list ??? some of them has done nothing …zero for their constituencies. It should be mandatory for sitting MLA to publish, how much fund was allocated to him and where it has been used and how much 🙂
Sometime I wonder why there is so much of fuss over people not getting party tickets ..Are these people really want to do good for the Himacahali junta …answer is NO…"Congress will try give various influential posts to disgruntled workers" ..what does this point to … Politics is a business with highest ROI. We should punish all these hypocrites.
Shimla guys Bajji is back …please please do not show the type of voting as was done in MC elections .. this guy does not deserve a single vote …we should make sure that such people should not get any votes .. I am saying across party lines .. if your MLA has not performed do not vote for them .. let it be BJP or Congress
And no surprise this time 41 of the total candidates fielded by parties are losers of previous elections.
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