In prestige battle for Himachal bypolls, Anurag Thakur goes all out to reverse Hamirpur setback

BJP MP from Hamirpur and ex-Union minister, Anurag Thakur, has been camping in his constituency in Himachal Pradesh for several days, leading the campaign in thebypolls for three Assembly seats in the state, which are scheduled for July 10.

Two of these seats — Dehra and Hamirpur — fall within the Hamirpur Lok Sabha constituency being represented by Thakur for five consecutive terms since 2008. Prior to that, Thakur’s father, Prem Kumar Dhumal, the former Himachal Pradesh chief minister, had represented the constituency three times.

Nalagarh, the third seat bound for bypolls, is part of the Shimla Lok Sabha constituency.

As per his packed schedule, Thakur will be stationed in Hamirpur until the end of campaigning on Monday evening. He addressed half-a-dozen poll meetings in Hamirpur Sunday. He will also lead a bike rally in support of the BJP candidate in the Hamir seat, Ashish Sharma, on Monday.

On Saturday, Thakur was in Dehra, where he held various meetings as part of his campaign for BJP candidate Hoshyar Singh Chambyal.

Himachal CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s wife Kamlesh Thakur is making her electoral debut from the Dehra seat on the Congress’s ticket.

Apart from Dehra, Sukhu has also stepped up his campaign for the Congress candidates in two other seats. He is seeing these bypolls as a prestige battle as he hails from Hamirpur district’s Nadaun, which he also represents in the Assembly. Deputy CM Mukesh Agnihotri’s Haroli seat also falls in the same district.

The bypolls were necessitated as these seats fell vacant after three Independent MLAs – who had voted in favour of BJP nominee in the February Rajya Sabha polls, Harsh Mahajan – resigned and went on to join the BJP. They have been fielded by the BJP from their