He joined the BJP in 2022 after being denied a Congress ticket to contest the Assembly elections from Gagret in Himachal Pradesh.
Photo: Former MLA Rakesh Kalia (FB)
After a brief stint of around 18 months with the BJP, former three-time MLA Rakesh Kalia from the Gagret Assembly constituency of the Una district returned to Congress on Thursday.
He had joined the BJP in 2022 after being denied a Congress ticket to contest the Assembly elections from Gagret as Chaitanya Sharma, a new face. got the nod from the party to contest elections and won defeating BJP candidate Rajesh Thakur by 12,685 votes.
Kalia was welcomed by Himachal Pradesh Congress in-charge Rajeev Shukla into the party fold as he formally joined Congress today morning in New Delhi.
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His move led to speculations about Kalia being made a Congress candidate to contest bye-polls from Gagret, even though former Congress State President Kuldeep Kumar is also amongst the front runners for the party ticket.
Kalia has been an MLA from Chintpurni twice, in 2003 and 2007, and after delimitation, as the Chintpurni seat got reserved he contested from Gagret in 2012.
However, in the 2017 elections, he was defeated by BJP candidate Rajesh Thakur, and in the 2022 Congress denied him a ticket to contest the Assembly elections and a disgruntled Kalia quit Congress.
Kali has also been chief parliamentary secretary in the previous Congress government led by former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.
Sharma is one of the six Congress rebels who had cross-voted in the elections for the lone Rajya seat in favour of BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan, rendering a shocking defeat to Congress candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
Following the disqualification of six rebel MLAs from the State Legislative Assembly by the Speaker Vidhan Sabha for defying the party whip, all of these MLAs joined the BJP.
As bye-elections are scheduled to be held in six Assembly constituencies on June 1 along with the Lok Sabha polls, Sharma is contesting from the Gagret on a BJP ticket.
The Congress party is yet to announce the names of their candidates to contest the bye-elections on the six seats vacated, whereas the BJP candidates have started campaigning in their respective Assembly constituencies.
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