Himachal CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s wife set for poll debut: Who is Kamlesh Thakur?

The Congress on Tuesday fielded Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s wife Kamlesh Thakur as its nominee for the Dehra Assembly bypoll scheduled for July 10.

Thakur, 54, hails from Nalsuha village in Kangra district and completed her education from Chandigarh. In June 1998, she married Sukhu with whom she has two daughters. Though Thakur will be making her electoral debut, she has been a member of the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) for the last two decades. She will take on the BJP’s Hoshyar Singh Chambyal who won the seat first as an Independent in 2017 and retained it five years later.

Dehra along with Hamirpur and Nalagarh will see bypolls after Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on June 3 accepted the resignations of the three Independent sitting MLAs who switched over to the BJP. The political crisis in the state was triggered after six Congress MLAs cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha election in February, leading to the loss of party nominee Abhishek Manu Singhvi. The MLAs were disqualified following which bypolls to the six Assembly seats were held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls on June 1. The BJP won two of these seats while the Congress triumphed in four. Currently, the 68-member Assembly has 38 Congress MLAs, 27 BJP legislations, and three seats vacant.

A senior Congress leader said while the Congress high command was keen on fielding Thakur from Dehra, initially Sukhu was hesitant. “This is why Thakur’s candidature was announced two days after it nominated Pushpendra Verma (Hamirpur) and Hardeep Singh Bawa (Nalagarh),” the leader said.

Dehra, with an electorate of 85,263, falls under the Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat, which is represented by former Union minister and five-time MP