Shimla, Sep 26 (IANS) Political activity in Himachal Pradesh has picked up ahead of by-elections to two assembly seats.
The two main political parties in the state - the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Congress - have started wooing the electorates of the Rohru and Jawali (Fatehgarh post delimitation) constituencies.

Rohru and Jawali were vacated by former Congress chief minister Virbhadra Singh and BJP’s Rajan Sushant, respectively, upon their entry into the Lok Sabha in the May general elections.

Out of these two constituencies, all eyes are on Rohru, the constituency represented by Singh for over two decades.

Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh told reporters here Saturday: “I am again here to redress the grievances of the people. The (state) government is not sincere with its development agenda. It’s just vindictive…settling personal scores.”

This is Virbhadra Singh’s third visit to the state in less than a month. During his previous two visits, he toured the Rohru constituency extensively.

Speculations are rife that Virbhadra Singh’s wife Pratibha Singh, a former MP from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, would be the Congress candidate from Rohru.

“It’s for the party high command to decide who will be the candidate. The aim of my visit is just to listen to the problems of the common man and redress them,” he said.

However, the BJP is making all-out efforts to wrest the Rohru seat. It has been a Congress stronghold.

Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal also toured some areas of the constituency earlier this month and announced development schemes.

“We will contest the by-election on the basis of development works, transparent, clean and corruption-free governance. This time we will definitely win Rohru too,” Dhumal told IANS.

The BJP is likely to field Khushi Ram Balnatah from Rohru, who has contested unsuccessfully in the past also.

From Jawali, the Congress is likely to field former state cabinet minister Sujan Singh Pathania, whereas BJP’s Sudha Sushant, wife of Rajan Sushant, is the hot contender for the seat.

State Congress chief Kaul Singh Thakur said: “The names of the candidates would be cleared soon after the announcement of the by-elections.”

In the 2007 election to the 68-member assembly, the BJP won 41, the Congress 23, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) one and Independents three seats. The BSP legislator later joined the BJP.