To prepare the roadmap and discuss the names of provable candidates for the Mandi Parliamentary by-election, slated for June 23, the Himachal Pradesh Congress Election Committee to meet on 25th May 2013 at 3:00 PM at Rajiv Bhawan, State Congress Office.
Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) president Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu will preside over the meeting.
HP Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh’s wife and former parliamentarian from Mandi Lok Sabha, Pratibha Singh is touted as a potential contender for the party ticket, but, the rival camp, led by Kaul Singh Thakur, is also mulling to get party high-command nod. Pratibha Singh had represented this seat in 2004 and had trounced BJP candidate Maheshwar Singh with more then sixty-five thousands votes and later in 2009 general election Virbhadra Singh had clinched a narrow victory over BJP candidate.
Yesterday, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh met AICC chief Sonia Gandhi, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Ahmad Patel, political secretary to the Congress chief, AICC General Secretaries Janardan Diwedi, Birender Chaudhary, Moti Lal Vohra and some other leaders and reportedly asked them to announce candidate well in time.
Mandi Parliamentary is a strong bastion of Congress as eleven times, party candidates have got electorates mandate. Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and Congress veteran Pt. Sukh Ram has represented thrice, Lalit Sen twice and Joginder Sen Bahadur, Amrit Kaur and Pratibha Singh had come out victorious single times. It’s also notable that Congress veteran Virbhadra Singh and Pt. Sukh Ram once faced defeat from here as well.
