Opposition BJP on Saturday wrote to the Election Commission of India (ECI) requesting to hold byelection for Sujanpur Assembly seat simultaneously with the scheduled lok Sabha polls in the State.
The Sujanpur Assembly seat had fallen vacant after Independent legislator Rajender Rana resigned from Assembly after getting Congress ticket to contest Hamirpur parliamentary seat. He is contesting against former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal’s parliamentarian son Anurag Thakur in the lok Sabha polls.
Rana had resigned from the Assembly on March 14 and the same day took membership of Congress party. The BJP’s move requesting ECI to hold bypoll for Sujanpur Assembly segment is being seen as an apparent bid by the party to take benefit of the widened rift between Virbhadra Singh and Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) chief Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu over ticket allotment and the popular mood in favour of party at least in Sujanpur where Narendra Modi held a massive rally.
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had favoured candidature of Rana for Hamirpur parliamentary seat while, Sukhu had persistently pushed candidature of Industries Minister Mukesh Agnihotri.
In a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) party spokesperson Ganesh Dutt said this move would save time and money of the State. “If by election would be held separately within six month there will be another poll code and additional poll expense,” he said.
If the Election Commission heeds to BJP’s request, the party could field Dhumal’s younger son Arun Thakur from Sujanpur. As many as 14 panchayats of earlier Assembly constituency Bamsan, home constituency of former Chief Minister, were added to newly carved out segment Sujanpur, at the time of delimitation exercise.
After delimitation, Dhumal contested from Hamirpur Assembly seat. Rana had once remained protégé of Dhumal but had rebelled against the BJP, when denied ticket from Sujanpur during the Assembly elections 2012.