Shimla, March 5 The Congress has chosen an unexpected candidate for the single Rajya Sabha seat from Himachal Pradesh: the president of the Kangra District Congress Committee, Anurag Sharma.
Union Minister Anand Sharma and former state Congress president Pratibha Singh, along with other prominent party leaders, were considered strong contenders for a Rajya Sabha nomination from the state.
However, Sharma's candidature has come as a surprise to those vying for a nomination – both within the Congress and the BJP. The biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha will be held on March 16.
He is considered to be very close to Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, and his selection by the Congress high command could be seen as a strategic move for Kangra district, where the party won 10 out of 15 seats in the last assembly elections, yet only secured two cabinet positions.
Sukhu said on Wednesday that the party would announce its pick after a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party, but the central leadership of the party released the list of candidates ahead of the CLP meeting.
Anurag Sharma, who was once the right-hand man of former Congress Minister and now BJP MLA Sudhir Sharma, was appointed DCC president just two months ago, in January.
His selection has surprised many in the state, who recall that Chandan Sharma's nomination for a Rajya Sabha seat in 1986 had also received a similar reaction.
Anurag Sharma hails from Bir in the Baijnath area of Kangra and is the president of the Billing Paragliding Association.
Born on August 29, 1978, Sharma has been an active member of the Congress since 1995, and he was the president of the NSUI at the Daijnath government college and held the position of the party's youth wing's state general secretary from 1998 to 2001.
