SHIMLA, March 24: Even as Assembly elections are round the corner, winning Bhoranj Assembly bypoll has become a challenge for the ruling Congress. Around 60 leaders have been appointed incharges at sector and village level to oversee the campaign and ensure the victory of its candidate. The party is treading cautiously as earlier Prem Kaushal, a staunch loyalist of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, was given the ticket but within a few hours the party decided to field Promila Devi.
Even as many Congress leaders are still trying to figure out why the ticket to Kaushal was cancelled, one of its local leaders Ramesh Dogra has turned rebel, which has further aggravated the problem for state leadership. Sources said that senior party leaders are trying to pacify Dogra to consolidate the position of official candidate.
They added that the BJP had an edge as post delimitation, Bhoranj had become a fort of BJP as 26 booths from Bamsan, which is the old assembly constituency of leader of opposition Prem Kumar Dhumal, had been included in Bhoranj. Sources further said that these booths were either from Dhumal’s panchayat or from his adjoining villages.
Source: Times of India
