Congress holds rally in HP's Dharamshala against rising inflation

The Congress' Himachal Pradesh unit held a rally here on Sunday against rising inflation and unemployment in the state.

Led by Congress state president Kuldeep Singh Rathore, the rally also showed the participation of senior party leader and former state minister Sudhir Sharma, who had been away from active politics for quite a long time citing health issues.

Rathore said as an opposition party, the Congress will keep raising the issues involving public interest "till the time Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jairam Thakur are defeated".

The participation of Sharma in the rally days after the recent bypoll in the assembly segment of Dharamshala also assumes significance as differences had come to the fore between him and the party candidate Vijay Inder Karan during the campaigning.

The former minister had stayed away from the campaigning for the October 21 bypoll, apparently suggesting all was not well between him and Karan.

Sharma's return in the rally not only surprised the opponents but also other Congressmen. A few Congress leaders were heard saying that his comeback will create new equations in local politics.

When the Congress state president was addressing the rally, slogans were raised by separate groups in favour of Sharma and Karan, who lost on a Congress ticket last month.

Rathore later told the media that the slogans were raised only in favour of the Congress and its leaders, "which is a good sign and the party is united"