The Lok Sabha constituency of Simla (R) is this time missing K D Sultanpuri who won this seat for the Congress six times in a row since 1980. Neither a political heavyweight nor a mass leader -- he was even disliked by his own partymen -- he had been treating the constituency like his pocketborough. In 1996 when there was a wave against the Congress, Sultanpuri won the seat with the highest margin of 91,133 votes for the fifth time. He won his first election in 1980 polling over 51 per cent votes, only to surpass this in 1984 securing 79.70 per cent votes. He repeated his performance in 1989 when the BJP swept the polls in the state, winning three of the four seats. All this earned him the sobriquet of ``Kismat Dhani'' Sultanpuri.

This time when the BJP allotted the seat to Sukh Ram's Himachal Vikas Congress, the party fielded an ex-Serviceman, Lt Col Dhani Ram Shadil, to capitalise on the Kargil victory. In a knee-jerk reaction, the Congress withdrew Sultanpuri from the contestand brought in former minister Gangu Ram Musafir, a sitting MLA.

ASHWANI SHARMA