Union Minister for Steel Virbhadra Singh, a former Himachal chief minister, has suffered a severe blow to his plans to get a ticket for his wife Pratibha Singh in Rohru — an Assembly constituency which had fallen vacant on his election to the Lok Sabha in May this year.

The by-elections to the state’s two Assembly constituencies, Rohru and Jawali in Kangra district, are slated for November 7. Manjit Singh, chairman of the Block Samiti and estranged Virbhadra Singh loyalist, has been given the ticket instead.

PCC president Kaul Singh Thakur, when contacted, said, “Manjit Singh had been a panchayat pradhan and later member of the zila parishad.”

The report about denial of party ticket to Pratibha Singh was received with shock by Virbhadra Singh loyalists in Rohru. They made frantic calls to Delhi and party leaders. Later, some of them also decided to register their protest to the party leadership.

“We will decide how we should convey our feelings to the party. There was a single name of Pratibha Singh proposed at the block Congress level and also recommended by the district Congress body. Both the claimants were signatories to the decision. We wonder why they did not make their plans public at block level,” said a Virbhadra Singh supporter at Rohru.

Pratibha Singh, who was in Shimla, said, “I was never keen for contesting the election. Only at the time when my husband toured Rohru, the people expressed sentiment to field me since it was going to be last election before delimitation report is implemented. He (Virbhadra) had left it up to the party to take a decision.”

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