High-pitch campaign for 4 Lok Sabha seats, assembly bypolls ends in Himachal

Shimla: The curtains came down Thursday on campaigning for all four Lok Sabha constituencies and assembly bypolls to six seats in Himachal Pradesh with rallies of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and a road show of Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

The elections in the hill state would be held on June 1, the last phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha polls. Now, the political leaders would go door to door in a last ditch attempt to woo the voters.

Stakes are high in Mandi Lok Sabha seat where Congress leader Vikramaditya Singh, "king" of erstwhile Rampur estate and son of six-time chief minister Virbhadra Singh, is contesting against actor Kangana Ranaut of the BJP.

In Hamirpur, four-time MP and Union minister Anurag Thakur is seeking fifth term. This constituency has also become important as four of six bypolls are held here.

Besides the four Lok Sabha seats of Hamirpur, Mandi, Kangra and Shimla, by-elections are also being held in six assembly segments of Sujanpur, Dharamshala, Lahaul and Spiti, Barsar, Gagret and Kutlehar. These seats fell vacant after six Congress legislators voted in favour of BJP's Rajya Sabha nominee Harsh Mahajan on February 27.

Later, the Congress rebels were disqualified for defying a party whip to vote in favour of the government during the budget. These MLAs joined the BJP and were given the ticket from their respective assembly seats.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah held two rallies each in the state covering all the four Lok Sabha constituencies. BJP president J P Nadda extensively toured his home state while Union minister Nitin Gadkari addressed three public rallies in the state.

For the ruling Congress in the state, party president Mallikarjun Khrage held a rally at Rohu (apple belt) in Shimla PC. While Rahul Gandhi addressed twin rallies in a day, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra addressed a series of rallies in four days in the run-up to the elections.

External affairs minister S Jaishankar (BJP) and former Union minister Shashi Tharoor (Congress) held interactions in the state to put their points forward.

Upset over attempts to topple his government, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu dubbed the Congress rebels as "Kale Nag" (black snakes) and "Bikau" (saleable) in his public meetings.

Immediately after the announcement of Kangna Ranaut as BJP nominee for Mandi seat, Congress spokesperson Supriya Srinate commented "Mandi main bhav kya chal raha hai", which evoked strong reactions.

Ranaut started her campaign by calling Rahul Gandhi and her rival Vikramaditya Singh as "Bada Pappu" and "Chhota Pappu".

She allegedly used derogatory words against the Nehru family and even did not spare her own party leader Tejasvi Surya who she confused with RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav as she termed him as a leader spreading "hooliganism and eating fish".

In retaliation, Vikramaditya Singh's mother and state Congress chief Pratibha Singh referred to Kangana as "Yeh husan pari hai, yeh kya cheez hai".

The campaign of the BJP focussed on failure of the Congress to fulfil poll promises and achievements of the Modi government while the Congress built its campaign on discriminatory attitude of the Centre during monsoon disaster coupled with the BJP's alleged attempt to topple the democratically elected state government.

A total of 62 candidates, including 37 candidates for the four Lok Sabha seats and 25 candidates in six assembly by-elections, are in the fray.