New Delhi: The Congress may field Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) chief and sitting Lok Sabha MP from the Mandi seat Pratibha Singh to take on BJP’s nominee actor Kangana Ranaut.
According to party insiders, days after Pratibha Singh made it public that she would not contest the June 1 Lok Sabha polls, the veteran is keen to join the fight against the BJP’s nominee. According to people close to Pratibha Singh, she has decided to discuss her candidature with the high command and is prepared to join the fray if given a go ahead.
Pratibha Singh, the wife of former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, carries the political legacy of her late husband and had won the Mandi Lok Sabha by-election in 2021, two years after the BJP won all the four parliamentary seats in 2019.
That was also the reason why ex-Congress chief Sonia Gandhi had revamped the Himachal Pradesh team in 2022 and had brought in Pratibha Singh to helm the party in the hill state.
The saffron party is looking at a repeat of its performance banking on the recent rebellion it engineered in the grand old party but the Congress is keen to put up a good fight.
"If the party decides, she is a very good candidate from Mandi. She is the state unit chief and the sitting MP from there," senior minister Rajesh Dharmani told ETV Bharat.
The Congress defeated the BJP in the 2022 assembly polls but the government of Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu recently suffered a setback when six rebel lawmakers voted against the party's Rajya Sabha nominee Abhishek Manu Singhvi. The six rebels, who were later expelled by the Speaker, recently joined the BJP ahead of the June 1 assembly by-polls which will be held together with elections for the four Lok Sabha seats in the hill state.
According to Dharmani, ahead of the crucial state by-elections and the national polls, the Congress will tell the people how the BJP tried to destabilise an elected government through anti-democratic means.
"The BJP influenced our rebels in the Rajya Sabha elections and has now inducted them. Surprisingly, the three independent MLAs who also voted against us in the Rajya Sabha polls have joined the BJP. It must have happened due to some give and take. The voters here are very mature and can see through the BJP's game," he said.
According to party insiders, after the six rebels were expelled, the strength of the House had come down to 62. The Congress has 34 MLAs and the BJP 25.
"We just need one more MLA to be in majority but we are confident of winning all the six assembly bypolls. We will win all the Lok Sabha seats also. The people will teach a lesson to the rebels who ditched the party," said Dharmani.
"The Sukhu government has implemented several of the poll promises but two decisions related to the old pension scheme and Rs 1,500 per month allowance for women have been big moves. These steps will help us in the polls," he added.
The six Congress rebels who joined the BJP on March 23 are Rajinder Singh Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Chaitanya Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal and Davinder Bhutto. The three Independents are Hoshyar Singh, Ashish Sharma and KL Thakur.
