Shimla, Mar 20: Himachal Pradesh Congress president Pratibha Singh will not contest the Lok Sabha elections. A sitting MP from Mandi Parliamentary Constituency, she was seen as the frontrunner for the ticket from Mandi Constituency. “I have refused to contest the elections,” she said here today after returning from the screening committee meeting held in Delhi yesterday.
Claiming that the circumstances were not conducive for her to contest the elections, she said the party workers were discouraged at the moment. “One can't win an election by just distributing funds from MP fund. Had the people I had recommended were given responsibility in time, they would have come out and worked for the party. Today, I do not see any worker who will actively work for the party. We win elections on the back of these workers,” she said. “I have been out in the field and have seen the ground situation. I don't think we will be able to achieve much success, so I have decided to withdraw my name,” she said.
She further said that we will have to give a lot of importance to the by-elections to save the government. “We will try and assuage the hurt feelings of the workers, and work to save the government,” she said.