Ensure hat-trick of Congress win: CLP leader Agnihotri’s call to voters in Haroli

Haroli in Himachal Pradesh’s Una district is a key constituency for the Congress

It’s time to script history, says Congress Legislature Party leader Mukesh Agnihotri as he pitches for his party’s win in the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections next month and also perhaps his own chief ministerial ambitions.

The senior legislator is hoping to win a fifth straight term — he has won twice from this constituency — which was in the headlines recently for Prime Minister Narendra Modi laying the foundation stone of a drug plant. He had earlier won from Santokhgarh constituency.

“Now it is time for Haroli to script history on two counts. Ensure a hat-trick of BJP defeat here and install your own rule in Himachal Pradesh,” Mr. Agnihoti told a cheering crowd earlier this week, asserting he has represented the area in the Vidhan Sabha with diligence and articulated their issues strongly in the assembly.

Haroli in Himachal Pradesh’s Una district is a key constituency, particularly for the Congress that has been scoring wins from here despite the BJP’s sway and is aiming at regaining power in the hill State.

Mr. Agnihotri, a journalist-turned-politician, realises the high stakes in this election, as do his supporters, with the ruling BJP out to beat the historical trend of anti-incumbency in the State by repeating its government.

It’s a triangular contest with Mr. Agnihotri pitted against BJP’s Ram Kumar, who he has defeated in the last two assembly elections, and first timer Ravinder Pal Singh Mann of the Aam Aadmi Party, a new entrant in State elections.

Across large swathes of the segment which borders Punjab, Mr. Agnihotri’s supporters are clamouring for their leader to be made the chief ministerial face of the Congress.