Indian National Congress seems confused to finalise its candidate from Theog assembly constituency. After naming young Deepak Rathore, a close confident of Rahul Gandhi, party replace him with nonagenarian party leader Vidya Stokes.
Stokes had desired to retire from active politics and asked Virbhadra Singh to contest from Theog, but with simmering functionalism within the party unit, Singh shifted to Arki segment, and yesterday party high-command cleared the name of Deepak Rathore.
It’s learned that Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and Vidya Stokes were expecting ticket for Vijay Pal Khachi son of JBL Khachi.
Stunned with the decision of party high-command, Vidya Stokes opposed the candidature of Deepak Rathore, and under pressure from senior party leaders of the state unit, high-command changed ticket in favor of her.
Vidya Stokes filed her nomination paper at 2PM today, and Deepak Rathore has filed nomination as a covering candidate.
Now, with Vidya Stokes in the fray, contest on Theog has become interesting. She will face her toughest contender Rakesh Verma (BJP), who had already defeated her in 1993, and Rakesh Singha of CPM. Verma had tasted defeated twice from Theog in 1998 and 2012, and now Verma has chance to equal his political score against her. He had represented the constituency three times in 1993, 2003 and 2007.
