Politics is the art of possible and this is true for Rajendra Rana, a one-time lieutenant of former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, who will now contest the lok Sabha polls against two-time MP Anurag Thakur.
Till October 2012, being one time associate of Dhumal, he was one of the probable for BJP’s ticket for Sujanpur Assembly constituency. He could not get party ticket due to inner wrangling within BJP and successfully contested the seat winning as an Independent candidate by over 14,000 votes.
People of Sujanpur were soon taken by surprise when Rana announced he is going to become associate MlA of Congress and later managed to hold three massive rallies in his constituency and got sanction of crores of work, which was unexpected for Hamirpur district during Congress rule.
It was evident that Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh was up for a bigger game and Rana’s name made a surprise entry to the foray of Congress tickets for lok Sabha elections.
Congress has not managed to win Hamirpur seat for past 16 years and this time Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh thought of fighting the battle against his arch rival Prem Kumar Dhumal and his son Anurag Thakur, with the help of their lieutenant.
Road ahead is not easy for Rana an ‘outsider’ or Virbhadra Singh. They had to fight tooth and nail to convince the party unit in the State and central leadership about Rana’s candidature. Finally Rana was asked to first take the membership of party before the official announcement of his ticket.
After getting green signal from Central leadership of Congress, on Friday, Rana a first-time MlA resigned as MlA before the Assembly speaker Brij Biharilal Butail and took the membership of party in the presence of HPCC chief Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, who opposed his candidature throughout.
“I am associated with social services, since past 14 years and am not unknown face for people of Hamirpur parliamentary constituency. I will put my one year report card of MlA in front of the people and seek the blessings,” said Rana.
He added that no fight is without challenges and he is ready to face the apparent tough battle with the support of people against Dhumal’s son Anurag Thakur. “I will not resort to mudslinging against Dhumals or exposing their weakness but if they do, then certainly I will not lie-down,” said Rana after his resignation.
He added that he is not over confident of win and leaving his four remaining years of a legislator but is confident of the support of people of Hamirpur. “Till now some Congressmen were right that I was an outsider but now I have become an active member of party and would take the ideology of party forward,” said Rana.
He also pointed out that though officially his ticket has not been announced by the party leadership till now but he has been conveyed that soon his tickets will be announced for the Hamirpur seat.