Himachal assembly bypolls: Cong candidate Hardeep Bawa files nomination from Nalagarh

On the fifth day of filing nominations for the Himachal assembly bypolls to be held on July 10, Congress candidate Hardeep Singh Bawa filed his nomination papers for the Nalagarh seat on Wednesday.

Chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, PCC president Pratibha Singh, deputy chief minister Mukesh Agnihotri, health minister Dhani Ram Shandil and education minister Rohit Thakur were present on the occasion.

“The face of Nalagarh will change in three-and-a-half years,” said Bawa.

Sukhu on Wednesday kicked off the Congress campaign for the bypolls to the three assembly segments, Hamirpur, Dehra, and Nalagarh. He made scathing attacks on former Independent legislators for their “attempts to destabilise” his government.

Sukhu questioned the BJP nominee, KL Thakur, over his urgency to resign from Vidhan Sabha after 14 months. “The three former MLAs have become the serfs of the BJP. Three Independents will have to explain to the public the reason for resignation,” said the CM while speaking at a public rally in Nalagarh soon after Congress candidate Hardeep Singh Bawa filed his nomination.

“In Nalagarh, the elections are between rich and talented. This election is for political integrity and cleanliness,” said Sukhu, appealing to voters to support Bawa in the elections.

He accused former Nalgarh MLA Thakur of neglecting the constituency. “Thakur is running to the high court to get a stay on his crusher. But he never ran to Shimla to get the problems of the public solved,” alleged Sukhu.

“I was always concerned about the development of Nalagarh. The former MLA always approached me for personal work,” he said, claiming that the former MLA did not visit his constituency for a month after resignation from the Vidhan Sabha.

“Why did he need to resign in 14 months? He was an Independent, he could have gone with the BJP anyway, but he had to resign from the post of MLA under pressure. He sold his integrity,” he alleged.

Flaying former CM Jairam Thakur, Sukhu said, “Jairam will come again and lie, but his government is not going to be formed in the state. The number of Congress MLAs has increased to 38. We will cross the figure of 40 by winning all the three seats in the byelection,“ he claimed.

“One who plays with the sentiments of the public cannot be a true servant. We did a lot of work for the independent MLAs because they had reached the assembly as the voice of the public. We were hopeful that the three would realise their mistake after three months, but they did not repent,” he added.

Earlier in the day Sukhu told newsman in Shimla that he did not want his wife to contest elections, but the party high command insisted she should, and announced her candidature for the Dehra assembly seat. “I was not willing that my wife contests the elections but could not say no to the Congress high command,” Sukhu said.

“This time when the high command insisted, I could not refuse given what the political scenario in the state demanded,” he said. He said his wife emerged as the frontrunner in the party survey, but he still did not want her to contest as he believed only one person from the family to be in politics.

“But given the political scenario in the state, we needed a strong candidate to contest from the Dehra assembly constituency,” he said. “My wife hails from Dehra, her family members live there and even the panchayat representatives wanted her to contest and I could not say no to the high command,” the CM added.