PCC chief Pratibha Singh mellows down, agrees to contest Mandi LS seat

Shimla: After taking a public stand about her move not to contest the Mandi Lok Sabha poll, PCC president Pratibha Singh has mellowed down. She will be contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha election, slated for June 1 in Himachal Pradesh.

The development came on Wednesday during a meeting of the party’s state coordination committee at Chandigarh in the presence of AICC incharge Rajeev Shukla and top state congress leaders including Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.

Sitting MP from Mandi earlier had said since the ground situation was not favourable, she was opting out of the contest.

On Thursday she told media persons that she had already appraised the party about reasons why she had said against contesting the Lok Sabha poll.

“ Now, the ball is in the high command’s court. It’s up to the leadership” she said.

She said the party will unite to fight the Lok Sabha poll and also six by-elections to the state Assembly.

Chief Minister who was present in the meeting also explained the steps taken by the government to fulfill promises made in the elections including OPS, Rs 1,500 pm to all eligible women in the age group of 18 to 59 years, a hike in the milk prices and relief and restoration works done after the natural calamities, she said.

Pratibha Singh said the Chief Minister will also be touring the constituency soon along with her.

Meanwhile, it’s learnt that the Congress has cleared the ticket for her from Mandi –an announcement about it will be made by the central election committee in the first week of April 2024.

Satpal Raizada, a former MLA and close confidant of Sukhu, will be fielded from Hamirpur against Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Singh Thakur, who will enter the fray for his fifth election.

The Congress is yet to take a call on Shimla and Kangra though the party discussed a few names but decided to undertake a survey before finalising the names.

Also, the Congress took a decision to clear two names for the Assembly bypoll which included fielding of ex-mayor of Dharamshala Devinder Singh Jaggi against Sudhir Sharma –a disqualified MLA now in the BJP and Vikas Sharma in Kutlehar against Devinder Kumar Bhutto, now in the BJP.

Insiders said, unlike BJP, the Congress has decided to give a chance to its own party leaders instead of fielding those defecting from the BJP to contest bypoll in the state.