The assembly election in Dharamshala has turned into a triangular contest.
Sudhir Sharma, who is considered one of the chief minister candidates of the Congress, said having many faces for the top post shows that his party has competent leaders.
The remarks came in response to Union Home Minister Amit Shah's jibe that there are seven-eight aspirants for the Himachal Pradesh chief minister's post in the Congress.
Shah during a rally at Nadaun in Hamirpur district on Wednesday said that the Congress is a party of 'rajas and ranis' and even though many chief ministerial aspirants might be in the fray in Himachal Pradesh no one will get a chance in reality.
Hitting back at the BJP, the Congress candidate from the Dharamshala constituency Sudhir Sharma said there could be more aspirants.
"There could be more (CM aspirants), there is a competition as it is democracy and it is a good thing, it should be there. It means that we have many competent candidates and there are a lot of choices," Sharma told PTI in an interview.
"Votes are not being cast in the name of the BJP's chief minister of five years and people are not attending their (BJP) rallies," Sharma, who was the housing and urban development and town and country planning minister during the Congress regime from 2012-17, claimed.
"Even the BJP workers here are disappointed and angry with the party as, forget about the common man's work, their own problems have not been addressed," Sharma claimed.
Rejecting claims of development, which is the main poll plank of the BJP in Himachal Pradesh, Sharma said Dharamshala has faced neglect in the last five years and even the projects that were brought here have not been started.
"BJP should not talk about the development of not just this area but the state also. This area has faced neglect. There is no big achievement of the Jairam Thakur government in the last five years," he claimed.
The assembly election in Dharamshala has turned into a triangular contest with BJP-rebel Vipin Nehria contesting as an independent candidate.
Nehria belongs to the Gaddi community, which has a sizable voting share here.
The BJP denied the ticket to the sitting MLA Vishal Nehria and fielded Rakesh Kumar Chaudhary, who belongs to the OBC community, which is a major vote bank in the Kangra district.
Chaudhary said he has a masterplan ready for the development of tourism here which will generate jobs for locals.
On the old pension scheme issue, he said, "Only BJP can address the issue with the Centre's support. The Congress is making tall claims of giving old pension scheme," he said.
Chaudhary, a then BJP rebel, had fought the previous by-election held in 2019 as an independent candidate and lost to Nehria by a margin of 6,758 votes.
He had joined AAP in March this year before switching to the BJP ahead of the announcement of polls in the state.
His frequent switches have not gone down well with the locals.
AAP has fielded Kulwant Singh Rana, who was a professor at Himachal Pradesh University.
Citing lack of resources as a major reason for thin display of party hoardings and flags in the area, Rana said the AAP party has focused on door to door campaigning.
"There is a strong resentment against the BJP and the Congress. Some are not pleased with candidates fielded by them. We have a good wave here," Rana, who was standing with a few supporters at city point here, said.
"Dharamshala has faced lot of discrimination in the last five years and we will end that," he said.
Besides BJP rebel Nehria, two other independents are also in the fray.
Bickering in the ruling BJP party over ticket allocation has given an edge to the opposition parties here.
Unemployment and the old pension scheme have emerged as the key poll issues in Dharamshala which is the second capital of the state and the administrative headquarters of the Kangra district.
Of the 80,586 listed voters, 40,438 are male voters while 40,148 are female.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)