Minister from Kasauli faces triangular contest

Shimla, Nov 5 – Himachal Pradesh Health Minister and three-time BJP MLA from Kasauli Assembly constituency of Solan district, Rajiv Saijal, will face a triangular contest in the November 12 poll.

Saijal will be up against former BJP rebel and Aam Aadmi Party candidate Harmail Dhimanand and son of former MP KD Sultanpuri, Vinod Sultanpuri.

Till 2007, the Kasauli Constituency was considered a Congress bastion but infighting in the party, helped BJP candidate Saijal to capture the seat.

Before Saijal, Cong leader Raghu Raj was the undisputed leader of the constituency. Raj represented Kasauli in 1982, 1985,1993,1998 and 2003.

Rajiv Saijal, who is BAMS doctor, has retained this seat for BJP from 2007-2012, again 2012-2017 and 2017-2022.

Saijal is up for his fourth term in the upcoming state elections.

Initially BJP was hesitant about him up but ultimately put him in the fray again.

He won by a margin of 24 votes in 2012 and 424 votes in 2017.

A party insider says Dhiman, a BJP turncoat now fielded by AAP may turn out to be a problem.

In 2017, Congress’ Vinod Sultanpuri lost to Saijal.

The reserved SC Kasauli Assembly constituency has around 68,739 voters comprising 35,642 male voters and 33,096 females and one from the third gender.

There are four urban entities and tourist places like Kasauli, Barog, Garkhal and Dagshai in the Constituency.

Saijal despite being in power twice from 2007-2012 and 2017-2022 has not provided proper solid and liquid garbage disposal plants and collection centre, the voter complain.

Kasauli and Subathu are Army cantonments and both are relatively cleaner and well-managed.

Local residents say rural areas are still cut off from mainstream and development of connectivity has been poor.

Education, Health, Unemployment and Irrigation are the main planks for voters.

Many electorates said elected representatives are not connected with voters.