CHANDIGARH: The Congress has fielded Kangra district party chief Anurag Sharma from Himachal Pradesh and Scheduled Caste leader Karamvir Singh Baudh from Haryana for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections scheduled for March 16. Today was the last date for filing nominations.
Sources said Sharma, a young face in the party and considered close to Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, hails from the Baijnath Assembly constituency in Kangra district. He is also the president of the Billing Paragliding Association and was appointed the Kangra district party chief in January this year. Sharma began his political career with the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) in 1995.
It is learnt that the grand old party adopted a cautious approach this time. In 2024, despite having a majority in the Assembly with 40 MLAs and the support of three Independent candidates, the Congress candidate and spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi lost the Rajya Sabha election. BJP’s Harsh Mahajan won the seat due to cross-voting by six rebel Congress MLAs and three Independents. Subsequently, all nine legislators joined the BJP, triggering political turbulence in the state.
The ruling party has 40 MLAs in the 68-member state Assembly, while the BJP has 28, placing the ruling party in a strong position to secure the seat. Currently, all three Rajya Sabha seats from the state are held by the BJP. The election to the Upper House seat is being held as the term of BJP MP Indu Bala Goswami ends on April 9.
Other contenders in the race included former state party chief and ex-MP Pratibha Singh, who was expecting the nomination either for herself or for her son, State PWD Minister Vikramaditya Singh. The names of State Health Minister Colonel Dhani Ram Shandil, former ministers Kaul Singh Thakur and Asha Kumari, former Union Minister Anand Sharma, Himachal Pradesh party in-charge Rajani Patil, and party national spokesperson Pawan Khera were also in the fray.
In neighbouring Haryana, the party high command chose Karamvir Singh Baudh, a relatively lesser-known figure in state politics, as its candidate. A Scheduled Caste leader, Baudh had earlier served as secretary of the Scheduled Caste cell at the AICC and is not associated with any faction in the faction-ridden Haryana Congress. His name was proposed by the AICC’s SC cell.
Baudh was a ticket aspirant from the reserved Mullana assembly segment in Ambala district and originally belongs to Bhaini Maharajpur village in the Meham Assembly segment of Rohtak district. In order to balance the caste representation in the state, the party went in for Baudh, as he is associated with SC employees and officers’ lobby within the state bureaucracy and hogged the spotlight during the agitation in connection with the death of 2001 batch IPS officer Y Puran Kumar.
Baudh is a former employee of the state government employee as he had served for 32 years in the Haryana Civil Secretariat. He had served in the home, vigilance, governance coordination, Industries and commerce, policy implementation besides other departments. Since 1998 he has served as the President of the Confederation of SC/ST/OBCs Haryana. Baudh has a credibility among SC government employees, as he had been advocating for service justice and reservation in promotions aligned with the 85th Constitutional Amendment.
The other party leaders who were among the contenders included former Haryana Congress president Udai Bhan, former Sirsa Lok Sabha member Ashok Tanwar and some Ahir leaders.
Both, the BJP and the Congress candidates are expected to have a smooth sail with 48 and 37 MLAs respectively in the 90-member assembly.