3 min readShimlaMay 1, 2024 07:04 AM IST
First published on: May 1, 2024 at 07:04 AM IST
The Congress on Tuesday fielded former Union Minister Anand Sharma from Kangra in Himachal Pradesh and actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar from the Gurgaon Lok Sabha seat in Haryana.
Satpal Raizada, a former Congress MLA from Himachal Pradesh’s Una, has been fielded from the Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat in the state and will contest the general elections against BJP candidate and Union minister Anurag Thakur. The Congress has also fielded Bhushan Patil from the Mumbai North constituency in Maharashtra.
This is the first Lok Sabha election that Sharma will be contesting. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha for the first time in April 1984 and has been a member of the Upper House of Parliament for four terms.
The decision to field Sharma, a prominent member of the G-23 group of Congress leaders, comes a month after he wrote to party president Mallikarjun Kharge questioning the party’s aggressive campaign pitch for holding a caste census. He had been upset with the leadership for not fielding him from Himachal Pradesh in the recent Rajya Sabha elections. According to Congress insiders, most of the party MLAs from Vidhan Sabha Assemblies falling in Kangra parliamentary seat are close to Anand Sharma. They suggested his name to CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, who further conveyed it to the high command. His Brahmin background also played a role in him being chosen as the Kangra candidate as the BJP has fielded a Brahmin face, Rajiv Bhardwaj, ignoring the sitting MP Kishan Kapoor.
Raj Babbar, who has been fielded from Gurgaon, was also a signatory to the letter written by the G-23 leaders group to then Congress president Sonia Gandhi in 2020 seeking organisational reforms. Hailing from Uttar Pradesh, Babbar, an established actor who has starred in several Bollywood and Punjabi films, is a five-time MP (three-time member of Lok Sabha and a two-time member of Rajya Sabha). He is also a former chief of Congress’ UP unit.
Hamirpur candidate Raizada believes in flexing his muscles and combining all forms of power — financial, physical and political. Having paid for gyms in Una Sadar constituency out of his own pocket, he won the 2017 Assembly elections and became an MLA for the first time. The 53-year-old, who used to play hockey during his school days, has studied up to class 10 and worked in the construction line in England for eight years.
Congress’s Mumbai vice-president Patil will take on BJP candidate and Union Minister Piyush Goyal from Mumbai North Lok Sabha seat, which is considered one of the strongholds of the BJP with a sizeable Gujarati population. The Congress delayed the announcement on this seat as it did not have a strong face to counter Goyal. It finally announced Patil’s name, who is known to be a loyal Congress worker from the region. Two weeks ago, the Congress had asked Shiv Sena-UBT leader Vinod Ghosalkar to contest from the seat on Congress’ symbol, but he declined the offer.
The Congress has fielded former Union Minister Anand Sharma (right) from Kangra in Himachal Pradesh and actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar from the Gurgaon Lok Sabha seat in Haryana. (File/PTI) 
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