HP Congress screening panel to discuss probables today

SHIMLA: The screening committee of Congress for Himachal Pradesh will meet in Delhi on Sunday to deliberate on probable candidates for the four Lok Sabha seats the hill state.

The meeting, to be chaired by Congress general secretary KC Venugopal, will be attended by party’s incharge for Himachal Pradesh Rajni Patil and co-incharge Gurkirat Singh Kotli. Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee chief Kuldeep Singh Rathore and leader of opposition in the state assembly Mukesh Agnihotri have also left for Delhi to attend the meeting.

Amid intense lobbying for ticket, the Congress high command has made it clear that winnability factor will be the sole criteria for selecting the candidates.

Before leaving for Delhi, Rathore also stressed on the winnability factor and said 41 leaders had applied for Congress tickets in the state. Party insiders said names of some leaders who had not applied for tickets were also under consideration, In Kangra, former MP Chander Kumar, former minister Thakar Singh Bharmouri and EX-MLA Kuldeep Singh Pathania are the prominent names. But former ministers GS Bali and Sudhir Sharma as well as Dalhousie legislator Asha Kumari, who have not sought party nomination, are also in the race. In Hamirpur, former minister Anita Verma and Abhikshek Rana, son of Sujanpur MLA Rajinder Rana, are among the frontrunners.

However, a faction opposing Abhishek Rana, has proposed the name of former state Congress chief Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu. However, Sukhu is reluctant to contest and has been pushing the name of Agnihotri.

In Shimla, Solan MLA Dhani Ram Shandil is the frontrunner. However, Vinod Sultanpuri, son of former MP KD Sultanpuri, and Amit Nanda are also among contenders for the ticket. As former CM Virbhadra Singh has declined to contest, the party may filed his son Vikramaditya Singh from Mandi.

PARTY HIGH COMMAND HAS MADE IT CLEAR THAT WINNABILITY FACTOR WILL BE THE SOLE CRITERIA FOR SELECTING CANDIDATES