SHIMLA: At a time when just two months are left for the assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and ruling BJP is systematically carrying out its election campaign with chief minister Jai Ram Thakur-led government organising "Azadi ka Amit Mahotsav" in all the 68 assembly seats, opposition Congress is lagging behind in campaign with leaders busy in ticket battle.
Of the total 68 assembly seats, single names have been sent only from three assembly seats of Una, Renuka and Haroli while from rest of the 65 seats multiple applications have been received and now decision on tickets is likely to be taken in the screening committee meeting likely to be held on September 20.
In the seats where panel of applicants have been formed or where single names have been sent now others have started raising their objections claiming that their names have not been included. Some have met AICC president Sonia Gandhi, some have met Rahul Gandhi while some have met AICC general secretary K C Venugopal on ticket issue.
According to sources in Congress, decision on the tickets of leaders who have joined Congress in New Delhi in recent past would be taken by the party high command directly in the screening committee. Fate of leaders like Dayal Pyari from Pachhad assembly seat of Sirmaur district, Indu Verma from Theog assembly seat of Shimla district, Khimi Ram from Banjar assembly seat of Kullu district and Surinder Kaku from Kangra assembly seat of Kangra district would be decided in the screening committee as their names are likely to be sent directly by the party high command. In some more seats discussions with leaders from other parties are going on and their tickets too would be decided directly by the high command, they added.
Sources said that battle for ticket is likely to harm the party’s chances of winning the assembly election as party’s focus at the moment is on settling ticket dispute while BJP is way ahead in campaigning through celebration of “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav” as Jai Ram Thakur as part of celebration is visiting every assembly constituency of state where he is also laying the foundation stones of various developmental projects and doing inauguration and also addressing public meetings.
Considering the fact that Himachal Pradesh has trend of changing government every five year, this year it is assumed that Congress can return to power due to which large number of people have applied for the tickets.
Sources said that when the Pradesh Election Committee meeting was held in New Delhi on September 5, at that time 29 members were present and majority had tried to include their names in the list resulting into 50% seats having single names while remaining 50% seats having panel of multiple names.
Screening Committee with Deepa Dasmunshi as chairperson and Umang Singhar and Dhiraj Gurjar as members beside AICC incharge for state Rajeev Shukla, state president Pratibha Singh, leader of opposition Mukesh Agnihotri, chairman of campaign committee Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and AICC Secretaries incharge of state are its be ex-officio members was earlier scheduled to meet on September 15 but this meeting was postponed on the request of state president Pratibha Singh due to her illness, sources said.
Now in the coming meeting, screening committee while considering the names would also rely on the survey conducted by high command in all the 68 assembly seats of state. For the first time, state has not carried any survey and this is also for the first time when the members of screening committee are visiting all the assembly seats and where tickets aspirants are meeting them and creating ruckus, sources added.
