SHIMLA SEAT MAY BE A HEAD ACHE FOR CONGRESS SAYS BHARATHIYA JANATHA PARTY INDIA NEWS HEADLINES
SHIMLA NEWS HEADLINES: - The Himachal Pradesh units of the Congress and the BJP are in a fix with large number of candidates seeking a ticket to contest elections from the Shimla assembly constituency, which goes to the polls on December 19. Severe dissidence and several influential leaders in the fray have made the choice of the candidate from this constituency difficult for both the parties. While nine people, including sitting legislator Habhajan Singh, are seeking a ticket from the Congress, double that number have applied for ticket from the BJP for contesting elections from this constituency. The trouble within the Congress were exposed recently during a meeting of the Shimla Congress Committee meeting, called to discuss the party's strategy for the assembly elections, when activists exchanged blows following the criticism of the sitting legislator by senior district leaders.
While several influential district Congress leaders are opposing Mr Bhajji's candidature this time, alleging non performance during the last four and a half years, the BJP has two heavyweights in Rajya Sabha MP and former party president Suresh Bhardwaj and party secretary Khushi Ram Balnatah. The situation was only normalised after the intervention of senior party leaders. While Mr Bhardwaj had been a legislator from Shimla once in 1990 and had lost from the same segment twice later, Mr Balnatah has fought and lost thrice in a row against Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh from Rohru constituency but with a lesser margin every time. The BJP, on the other hand, has to ensure that one of the two leaders is made to sit in favour of the other without any heartburn, which would otherwise harm the interests of the party in this constituency. The fact that the constituency goes to the polls during the second phase on December 19 provides the Congress and the BJP to look the other way as the candidates slug it out among themselves till then. Besides social activist and senior party member Deshbandhu Sood, who is popular among the people as a campaigner for the rights of people, the party spokesman Ashok Kapatia is also a strong contender for a BJP ticket this time.
