It’s Sonia versus Virbhadra in Arki

ARKI (SOLAN): Curiously, AICC president Sonia Gandhi is pitted against Congress chief minister Virbhadra Singh in this Assembly constituency.

After Sonia handpicked her cook’s son Parkash Chand Karad as the Congress candidate to upstage sitting party MLA Dharam Pal, the entire Congress unit here stands vertically divided. Refusing to accept Sonia’s diktat Dharam Pal, who has been deputy speaker in the Assembly, and a close confidante of the chief minister, is contesting as an independent candidate.

During the campaign if Karad has been projecting Sonia as his leader to seek votes, Dharam Pal has been trying to cash in on his proximity to Singh.

While Karad has got his and Sonia’s pictures on posters, Dharam Pal has been portraying Virbhadra as his close  ally to oppose Karad leaving the voters confused  who, of the two, was the real nominee. The workers are unable to take sides because Karad, to them, is a paratrooper, who has no grounding in state politics.

The CM recently asked the people to vote for Karad, but in the same breath described Dharam Pal as his close friend. This has left BJP candidate Gobind Sharma amused as he hopes to make electoral dividends.