Shimla police question Ashish Sharma

Ashish Sharma, BJP candidate from the Hamirpur constituency, faced questions from an investigating team at a police station in Shimla today, a day after the byelection to the seat.

The police had registered a case against Ashish Sharma and Rakesh Sharma, father of Chaitanaya Sharma, who was the BJP candidate for the Gagret Assembly bypoll. The case was registered against Ashish and others over “electoral offences” related to the Rajya Sabha election in which six Congress MLAs had voted for the BJP candidate.

Ashish said the government had adopted a revengeful and dictatorial attitude towards him and used the police to disturb his electioneering. He added it was only after his request to the High Court that the police had extended the date of questioning.

Meanwhile, Pushpinder Verma, Congress candidate for the Harmirpur byelection, spent the day analysing his performance during the campaign. He met party workers at his residence and also visited the strongroom zone to see the security arrangements there.

Verma said that he was confident of his victory as the people of the constituency had voted for the Chief Minister and an honest government in the state. The byelection was between honest and discredited and people had rejected turncoats.