Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) president Partibha Singh is most likely to contest the Mandi parliament seat again in the ensuing Loh Sabha elections as a Congress candidate, against BJP candidate Kangna Ranaut.
Talking to media persons after a meeting of Congress coordination committee, attended by Rajiv Shukla, Congress in-charge of Himachal Pradesh at Chandigarh, she said, “I have been asked by the Congress high command to contest the Mandi parliament seat and I would abide by the party directive.”
She said, “I had conveyed my reservations to party leadership for not contesting the elections citing several reasons; the Congress high command has assured me to address my grievances and asked me to contest the Mandi parliament seat.”
Pratibha Singh, the sitting Congress MP from Mandi, had expressed her reluctance to contest the coming parliament election citing several reasons a few days back , major being disregard of grass root party workers.
Three times Mandi MP, wife of six times former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, one of the tallest Congress leaders of Himachal, Pratibha Singh is still the best bet of Congress to take on film actress Kangna Ranaut.
Mandi parliament constituency has been won six times by Virbhadra Singh family; three times by Virbhadra Singh and three times by Pratibha Singh.
The last by-election held for Mandi parliament seat in 2021 had occurred after the sudden demise of BJP MP Ram Swaroop Sharma, who had won the 2019 parliament election by over 4 lakh votes and defeated Pratibha Singh in 2014 election by nearly 39000 votes.
But Pratibha Singh, who had contested the 2021 by-election without the experienced stewardship of her husband Virbhadra Singh after his death in adverse situations, had defeated BJP candidate Khushal Thakur by 7940 votes.