Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Wednesday intensified bypoll campaign in Mandi parliamentary constituency in favour of his wife Pratibha Singh, who was fielded by the Congress to retain the seat.
Singh will file the nomination papers on Thursday in the presence of Chief Minister and State Congress president Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu and other Ministers and leaders. However, no senior Central leaders will be present on the occasion. After filing of nomination papers, a rally will be held at Mandi which will be addressed by Virbhadra himself and other party leaders.
BJP candidate Jai Ram Thakur will be filing his nomination papers on June 1 and after this, a rally will be held in Mandi.
Congress has taken a lead in poll campaigning and Virbhadra Singh who has taken the onus in his hand to ensure his wife’s win, has already campaigned in half of the tribal areas falling in the district. On other hand, BJP which earlier was uncertain over the choice of candidate had started late and different committees headed by different leaders have been formed to ensure the win of the candidate.
Opposition BJP is looking forward to upset the popular poll prediction of Congress win in the by-poll with former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal saying that this election will be fought against the policy paralysis in the UPA Government and in the State.
BJP’s Jai Ram Thakur said that in the past 5 months over 15,000 transfer-postings have been done by the State Government and no major decision have been taken.
Thakur’s acceptability largely lies among the youth as he has started his political career from students’ politics. Congress on other hand has an upper edge as Mandi has always been Congress stronghold and two political stalwarts former Union Telecom Minister Pandit Sukhram and former BJP MP and now rebel Maheshwar Singh are now supporting the party directly or indirectly.