Sukhvinder Sukhu the CM as Sukhvinder Sukhu the campaigner and husband

For Sukhu, it is a prestige battle, with knives likely to be out against him inside the party again should Kamlesh lose. If one of the main promises by Kamlesh was that in case she won, Dehra would get a CM office – the second one after Shimla – Sukhu went one step further and said Dehra would technically get “a CM” if they elected his wife.

A Congress worker said the couple have been campaigning separately. “Throughout the campaign, they addressed different meetings, sharing the stage only a few times.”

The task before Kamlesh is not easy as Dehra has never elected a Congress candidate. Its 2022 Assembly poll candidate, Rajesh Sharma, who was overlooked for the bypoll, initially rebelled at Kamlesh’s candidature, alleging that he had been kept confined at his official residence in Shimla forcibly before the nomination. Later, however, Sharma had retracted his statement and announced support for Kamlesh.

The winner in the 2022 Assembly elections from Dehra, for the second time, was Independent Hoshyar Singh Chambyal. He is among the three Independent MLAs who resigned as MLAs and joined the BJP in March, necessitating the July 10 bypolls.

Born and brought up at village Chamnal under Nalsuha panchayat in Dehra, Kamlesh has been a member of the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee for almost two decades. She got married to Sukhu in June 1998.

Invoking the “destiny” claim at a gathering in sub-town Dehra Sunday night, attended by around 300 people, Sukhu said: “Even I didn’t know that my wife would get this ticket. It was all written in the stars, that the Independent MLA from Dehra would resign and there would be a by-election in Dehra… Naa mein, naa meri wife ticket lena chahti theen, par ye bhi sanyog hua, mere wife ke naam par ek chhota zameen ka tukda Dehra mein hai (Neither my wife nor I wanted the ticket, but then another coincidence happened, that my wife owns a small piece of land in Dehra). Which meant that there was no problem in her contesting the election.”

Asking people to be careful about whom they choose, Sukhu said voting for Chambyal would mean voting for a party that is in the Opposition. “Elect a Congress candidate. If you are electing one, you are electing your Chief Minister (CM).”

Kamlesh talked about her links with Dehra, and asked people to vote for “your dhayana (sister, in Pahadi)”. “I am not seeking votes from Congress or BJP supporters, I am demanding votes from my brothers and sisters. You must give so many votes in shagun (token) to your sister that the entire state feels proud of Dehra.”

She also asked Dehra to think why their Independent candidate vacated his seat in 14 months. Speaking in Pahadi, she said: “The MLA has blackened the name of Dehra. This will be part of a General Knowledge question in examination papers.”

Few senior Congress leaders from outside the state campaigned for Kamlesh, and one of them was Pawan Khera, the party’s chairman, Media and Publicity. However, party leaders said, this was not a sign of any lingering opposition to Kamlesh’s candidature. They pointed out that Sukhu has silenced his detractors with the Congress’s good performance in the six Assembly bypolls, and the high command did not raise any objections to the ticket to his wife.

Sudershan Thakur, who admits he is a staunch Congress supporter, says: “If this time the Congress does not win, it will never do so in the future. It is not about Kamlesh’s prestige, it is the prestige of CM Sukhu at stake.”