Former Union Minister Anand Sharma is the Congress candidate for the Kangra Lok Sabha seat in Himachal Pradesh. Mr Sharma, first elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1984, is contesting his debut Lok Sabha elections this year.
Here are some facts on Anand Sharma:
1. Anand Sharma was born on January 5, 1953, in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh to PA Sharma and Prabha Rani Sharma. He completed his BA from Shimla's RPC SDB College in 1973 before earning his Bachelor of Law from Himachal Pradesh University in 1977.
2. Mr Sharma was always interested in politics and participated in student and youth movements across India. He was one of the founding members of the National Student Union Of India (NSUI), the student wing of the Congress. He later served as its state President for Himachal Pradesh and National General Secretary. In 1985, Mr Sharma became the president of the Indian Youth Congress.
3. Anand Sharma made his electoral debut in 1982 when he unsuccessfully contested the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections against BJP's Daulat Ram Chauhan. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1984 at age 31, after which he served four terms.
4. In his four-decade-long career, Mr Sharma worked closely with former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and was a Union Minister in the Manmohan Singh government. In 2006, he became the Union Minister of Foreign Affairs and then Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting in 2008. He was also the Congress party's chief spokesperson for six years. Mr Sharma was the deputy leader of Congress in the Rajya Sabha before he retired in 2022.
5. A Lok Sabha ticket to Mr Sharma came as a surprise to many because he was a prominent member of "Group of 23" (G-23) Congress leaders, who, back in 2020, wrote to then-party chief Sonia Gandhi and asked for a "collective and inclusive leadership" in the organisation. Not just that, Mr Sharma, just a month ago, wrote to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and questioned the party's aggressive campaign around holding a caste census.