Himachal power base set for electrifying show with sitting lawmakers in fray

Shimla, May 20 (PTI) Shimla (SC) Parliamentary constituency, which wields an inordinate heft in the state and has given it three chief ministers, is heading for a lively contest as the arch rivals Congress and BJP have pitted their sitting MLA and sitting MP.
     The Congress has fielded Vinod Sultanpuri, the sitting MLA from Kasauli and son of six-time MP Krishan Dutt Sultanpuri from the Shimla seat. He will try to take on the sitting MP and former BJP state president, Suresh Kashyap.
     The Shimla Lok Sabha constituency has been the epicentre of state politics for over four decades. Three previous chief ministers, Dr Y S Parmar, Thakur Ram Lal and Virbhadra Singh, who remained in power for about forty years hailed from this constituency.
     The two leaders facing off have been vying for the people's votes raising several issues afflicting the people of the constituency.
     Doubling of import duty on apples from fifty per cent has been the main demand of farmers from the constituency, where eight out of seventeen assembly seats have been impacted by cheap apples from Iran and other countries.
     Poor condition of roads, frequent landslides, and hydropower projects are some of the other issues in Shimla, which the contenders seek to address after winning, they say.
     Some other issues, such as that of illegal mining, manufacturing of substandard drugs, and lack of industrial infrastructure specific to Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh and Paonta Sahib areas also make to the list of the politicians.
     Considered a Congress bastion, Shimla (PC), which came into existence in 1967 after the merger of hilly areas of Punjab, has been reserved for members of the SC community since its inception.
     Out of fourteen Lok Sabha elections since 1967, Congress has won the seat nine times, BJP thrice, and Janata Party and Himachal Vikas Congress once each.
     The BJP wrested the seat in 2009 for the first time, and retained it in 2014 and 2019.
     The Shimla seat shares its borders with Punjab, Haryana, and Uttarakhand and has a diverse topography, culture, and languages and as such the issues and problems also vary.
     With altitude ranging between 1,000 feet and 13,000 feet and remote and inaccessible areas like Chansel Pass, Dodra-Kwar, Churdhar mountain ranges and Shrikhand Mahadev falling under it, maintenance and development of infrastructure is a major challenge in the constituency.
     Kashyap is banking on his past work for the public's votes.
     He has claimed that he got sanctioned projects worth Rs 27,000 crore, including the Rs 1,540 crore Chandigarh-Baddi Railway line, Rs 5,000 crore Medical Device Park, and Rs 6,947 crore for Renuka Dam project under his term.
     He says under his tenure Scheduled Tribe status was granted to people of Trans-Giri area.
     Kashyap told PTI that if he came to power, his priorities would be to get included apple in the PM crop insurance scheme, construct of Jagadhri-Paonta Sahib-Kala Amb railway line, develop eco-tourism, promote cultivation of coarse grains, construct tunnels to improve connectivity and link every village by road in next five years.
     Sultanpuri said ensuring safety on the national highways and link roads, which claim several lives in the constituency, irrigation in dry lands, and hiking the import duty on apples would be among his priorities.
     In the 2022 assembly polls, of the 17 assembly seats in the Shimla LS constituency, Congress and BJP won 13 and three seats, respectively, while one seat went to an Independent.
     The LS constituency got the lion's share in the ministry with five cabinet ministers, three Chief parliamentary secretaries and Deputy Speaker of Vidhan Sabha coming from it.
     Krishan Dutt Sultanpuri, the father of the current Congress contestant, won the seat for the first time in 1980, retaining it in 1984, 1989, 1991, 1996 and 1998.
     He lost the seat to Dr Dhani Ram Shandil of Himachal Vikas Congress in 1999, but returned to the Congress fold when Shandil joined the party and won the election 2004.
     Balak Ram of Janata Party was the first non-Congress candidate from Shimla, who was elected from the seat in 1977, but his term was cut short as the Parliament was dissolved after the fall of Charan Singh government. Balak Ram contested the midterm elections in January 1980 but lost.
     The BJP captured the seat for the first time in 2009, when Varinder Kashyap defeated Shandil. He retained the seat defeating Mohan Lal Brakta of Congress in 2014.
     Suresh Kashyap (BJP) defeated Dhani Ram Shandil (Congress) by a margin of 3.27 lakh votes in 2019.
     The Shimla Parliamentary Constituency comprises seventeen assembly segments — seven in Shimla district and five each in Solan and Sirmaur districts.
     It has a total of 13.54 lakh voters – 6.99 lakh men, 6.55 lakh women, and 12 third gender.
     The Shimla PC will go to the polls on June 1 with three other Lok Sabha constituencies – Kangra, Mandi, and Hamirpur – and six assembly seats.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)