Having already visited all the Assembly segments under the Kangra Lok Sabha constituency in Himachal Pradesh twice as part of his campaign, Congress candidate Anand Sharma, 71, is busy visiting them once again, but in areas that were not covered during his earlier trips.
Kangra is the most populous among Himachal’s four Lok Sabha constituencies which are going to polls in the seventh and final phase on June 1.
In the 2022 state Assembly elections clinched by the Congress, the party had won 12 of 17 Assembly seats that fall in the Kangra parliamentary constituency.
But one of its MLAs, Sudhir Sharma from the Dharamsala seat, revolted early this year and cross-voted against the party’s Rajya Sabha poll candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who lost to the BJP’s Harsh Mahajan. Later, Sharma along with five other rebel Congress MLAs was disqualified for disobeying the party whip. All of them later joined the BJP, which also gave them tickets for the by-elections in their seats, which will also take place on June 1.
