Though Congress and announced its candidates for the assembly poll, but party is facing infighting as many of its unsuccessful ticket seekers have threaten to go contest election as an independent candidate.
In Manali segment, 24 Congress leaders have resigned from Congress and threaten to field Dharamvir Dhami as an independent candidate if party didn’t replace Bhuvneshwar Gaur with him. Rebellion at Kullu seat is coming to fore, where senior congress leader Satya Prakash has refused to support official party candidate and threaten to field his wife in the election.
The Congress is also facing dissidence in the Una and Kutlehar Assembly constituencies over the distribution of the party ticket. It is learned that former MLA from Una OP Rattan has stated that his supporters were urging him to contest as an Independent.
In case the party did not change its decision to allot the ticket to Satpal Raizada till October 14, he would file papers as an Independent. Rattan reportedly said he could not ignore the sentiments of his supporters, who are not ready to accept the denial of ticket to him. The sources said that Rattan was being approached by leaders of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and he might join the TMC to contest from Una.
In the Kutlehar Assembly constituency also, Des Raj has reportedly urged the Congress high command to change the party ticket allotted to Ram Dass Malangar. He has also stated that his supporters were urging him to contest as an Independent from Kutlehar.
Malangar is a former deputy speaker and BJP leader. He left the BJP and joined the Congress after being denied the party ticket. Some old BJP workers from the Kutlehar segment have joined Malangar. Malangar is considered to be an honest leader from the area who can put up a fight against the BJP that has been winning from the constituency for the past over two decades.
Rebellion from Sirmour districts are also brewing as Karnesh Jung from Paonta Sahib, who was denied the Congress ticket, said he had appealed to the party high command to reconsider his candidature within two days.
Jung declared that if the decision was not reconsidered he would decide the next course of action after consulting his supporters. While he desisted from announcing to contest as an independent candidate, several other leaders who addressed the gathering urged him to contest if the decision was not reversed. Even, the Paonta Sahib block (Congress) has announced their support for Karnesh.
On Kasumpti segment, Kasumpti block Congress president Vir Vikram Sen along with many office bearers have resigned and demanded to change the ticket of Anirudh Singh. They have also decided to field Vijay Jyoti wife of Vir Vikram Sen as an independent candidate if party does not heed to their demand.
