Knives out in open in Cong as Kaul blames Virbhadra for defeat

A day after he lost the election from the Drang assembly segment, senior Congress leader and former health minister Kaul Singh Thakur blamed Virbhadra Singh for defeat.

Speaking to mediapersons, Kaul Singh said that Virbhadra was informally supporting independent candidate Puran Chand Thakur, thereby diving the Congress party's vote bank in the segment and leading to the victory of BJP candidate Jawahar Thakur with a huge margin.

Once known to be Kaul Singh Thakur’s right hand man, Puran Chand had a falling out with the former when he demanded a ticket from the Drang segment.

The relationship further soured when the Puran Chand was offered the post of vice-president in the state Congress.

Puran Chand decided to contest as an Independent candidate after he was denied a Congress ticket from the Drang segment.

I requested Virbhadra to stop Puran Chand from his mischievous activities in Drang segment but he always ignored.

DIDN’T GET ENOUGH TIME TO CAMPAIGN: CHAMPA

Having lost by a margin of 10, 257 votes, Congress candidate from Mandi Sadar, Champa Thakur said that the less time she got for campaigning and poor management was the main reason for her defeat against BJP’s Anil Sharma.

The daughter of veteran Congress leader Kaul Singh Thakur, Champa said that her ticket was finalised by the party high command just before the filing of nomination papers after Anil Sharma, who was earlier a Congress member, switched over to the BJP at the last minute, leaving the party in a frenzy.

Champa said she got only 15 days for campaigning after her name was finalised on November 23.

KAUL SINGH THAKUR, Cong leader