Comprising a part of Himachal Pradesh’s apple belt in the north and three vital industrial belts in the lower hills, Shimla parliamentary seat is a former Congress stronghold that has shifted loyalties and elected the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Virender Kashyap in the last two Lok Sabha elections held since 2009.Before the saffron party broke into its citadel in the 2009 polls, the Congress lost just two of the 15 elections and bypolls held in the seat since 1952 — with Krishan Dutt Sultanpuri being elected from the seat six times in a row, from 1980 to 1998. In fact, the first time it did not give him the ticket from the seat in the 1999 mid-term polls and instead gave it to Gangu Ram Musafir, the Congress lost the seat to the now-defunct Himachal Vikas Congress’s Dhani Ram Shandil, who is now part of the Congress.The other time the party lost the seat was in 1977, when Bharatiya Lok Dal candidate Balak Ram won the seat. Even former Union minister and Himachal Pradesh CM Virbhadra Singh has represented the constituency two times.Given its diverse demography, Shimla constituency’s election issues change with each of the 17 assembly seats it comprises. These range from a demand for an increase in the import duty on apple, so that growers in Upper Shimla and Rohru get a better price for their produce, to extending the scheduled tribe (ST) status to the Hatti community of the Trans-Giri region in Sirmaur district.In the run-up to the 2014 parliamentary elections, senior BJP leaders, including Union home minister Rajnath Singh, had also promised ST status to the community in Trans-Giri region, but this promise has not been fulfilled. Both Trans Giri and Jaunsar Babar, now in Uttarakhand , were part of the erstwhile Sirmaur princely state. While the two have the same lifestyle, culture and tradition, the Hatti community in Jaunsar Babar was granted ST status when it was shifted to Uttar Pradesh in 1967. On the other hand, the community in Trans Giri is still waiting for it.The first CM of Himachal Pradesh, Yashwant Singh Parmar, had represented the constituency, when it was Mahasu and was represented by three MPs because of its size, in Parliament. Apart from him, other MPs from the seat who have been elected to the top political post in the state include second CM Thakur Ram Lal and six-time CM Virbhadra Singh.Virbhadra has also served as a Union minister.Other leaders who have emerged from the seat, but have not fought the Lok Sabha polls include Congress’s Vidya Stokes and assembly speaker and BJP leader Rajeev Bindal.The constituency shares its boundary with Haryana, Punjab, Chandigarh and Uttarakhand states. It has the largest presence of industrial units in the state. In all, it comprises three major industrial belts — Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh, Paonta Sahib, and Kala Amb . Like most of Himachal Pradesh, tourism is another mainstay for locals, especially for those living in Shimla, Kufri and Narkanda . Apart from Shimla, the other districts which make up the parliamentary constituency are Solan and Sirmaur. The Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh area has emerged as the biggest industrial hub of the state with 2,200 industries. Of these, 2,100 are medium, small and micro enterprises (MSME). In all, the belt meets 40% of the country’s pharmaceutical demands. While the Congress would be looking to regain its hold on the seat, its losing margin against the BJP has only increased, from 27,323 in 2009 to 82,203 in 2014.

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