The Central Election Committee of BJP on Thursday named former party rebel Narendra Thakur as party candidate from Sujanpur Assembly byelection.
Thakur had recently joined back the party and had contested unsuccessfully five elections, including two against former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and his parliamentarian son Anurag Thakur. Son of former BJP stalwart late Jagdev Chand Thakur, Narender Thakur for the first time unsuccessfully contested on BJP ticket against senior Congress leader Anita Verma in 1994. The elections were necessitated by his father Jagdev Chand’s sudden demise.
Jagdev Chand Thakur had won five consecutive elections from Hamirpur from 1977 to 2003 and was Cabinet Minister in the Shanta Kumar Government. However, Narender Thakur out of differences with Dhumal was apparently sidelined in the party forcing him to part his ways. Thakur later joined Congress and in 2003 he was given ticket against BJP’s Anurag Thakur from Hamirpur parliamentary seat. Narendra again lost but he gave Anurag Thakur run for the lok Sabha seat by securing over three lakh votes.
During Assembly elections in 2012, Congress pitted him against Dhumal. However, Thakur again lost but he managed to bring down BJP chief ministerial candidate victory margin considerably. Dhumal managed to win elections by just over 9,000 votes while he had won the previous elections from his traditional Bamsun seat by over 26,000 votes.
Thakur recently quit the Congress and returned back to BJP. Sujanpur seat had fallen vacant after Independent legislator Rajinder Rana, quit the Assembly to contest elections against BJP’s Anurag Thakur on Congress ticket from Hamirpur parliamentary seat.
Congress could field Anita Rana, wife of Rajinder Rana, as chief minister Virbhadra Singh has backed her candidature saying that she is the most suitable candidate on the seat for the party.