Himachal Pradesh Congress President Kuldeep Singh Rathore on Thursday expressed his desire to contest the state assembly elections from one of the five seats where his party’s candidates lost their security deposit in the last election. Buoyed by the victory of Congress candidates in the Mandi parliamentary seat and three assembly seats of Fatehpur, Arki and Jubbal-Kotkhai in the recent state bypolls, Rathore expressed his willingness to contest the difficult seats, saying he would lead the party from the front.
“If the party high command asks me to do so, I am ready to lead by contesting from one of the five seats from where Congress candidates lost their deposits,” he told reporters here. Shimla Urban, Theog, Dehra and Joginder Nagar seats in the 2017 assembly elections and Dharamshala in the 2019 by-elections. Rathore is from Theog. When asked from which seat he would like to contest in the state assembly elections next year, Rathore escaped with a straightforward answer.
He said that after winning the recent by-polls in Himachal Pradesh, the Congress is concentrating on 23 seats out of the total 68 assembly seats from which it could not win for the last 10 to 30 years. Congress failed to win from Churah, Chamba, Bhatial (Chamba district), Indora, Dehra, Jaswan Paragpur, Shahpur (Kangra), Manali (Kullu), Nachan, Seraj, Joginder Nagar, Dharampur, Sarkaghat (Mandi), Bhoranj, Hamirpur . (Hamirpur), Kutlehar (Una), Jhanduta (Bilaspur), Kasauli (Solan), Pachhar, Nahan, Paonta Sahib (Sirmaur), Chaupal, Shimla Urban (Shimla district) seats from last one to three decades.
He said that I myself have done 100 km padyatra (March) under Jan Jagran Abhiyan in eleven of those 23 assembly seats to revive the party. Rathore started his padyatra from Paonta Sahib on 14 November, which in the first leg ended at Bhoranj on 1 December.
The Congress President visited several areas of Paonta Sahib, Kasauli, Kutlehar, Shahpur, Jhanduta, Jwalamukhi, Balh, Keylong, Manali, Sarkaghat and Bhoranj assembly constituencies during a fortnight-long padyatra. Rathore said he would soon start the second phase of his padyatra in the remaining 12 assembly constituencies where his party performed poorly.
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