The Congress screening committee, headed by AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi, which met in Delhi today, has left the decision on Hamirpur Parliamentary constituency in Himachal Pradesh to the party high command in view of lack of consensus on Narinder Thakur’s name.

Narinder Thakur, son of veteran BJP leader, late Jagdev Chand, was recently admitted to the party after being projected as the party’s nominee against Anurag Thakur.

Anurag Thakur’s name was the first to be cleared by the party along with BJP’s prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani. Hamirpur is Dhumal’s strongest fortress, both for his Parliamentary career and

after becoming the state’s chief minister twice.

Narinder Thakur had quit the party five months back and joined the Congress. He had been carrying on an open tirade against Dhumal and Anurag Thakur, levelling serious charges against them. He apparently was a prize catch for PCC president Kaul Singh Thakur to pin down Dhumal in his home district.

But the going has not been smooth for Narinder Thakur, who faces stiff opposition within the Congress. The BJP rebel had been camping in Delhi to lobby for the ticket, but today he apparently lost hope as the party has proposed two other names — O.P. Rattan, a former MLA who lost to Anurag Thakur by more than 1.74 lakh votes in the 2007 byelection, and Sunil Bittu, Congress district president in Hamirpur.

Denial of a Congress ticket to Narinder Thakur can be seen as the first major victory for Dhumal. In that event, Anurag Thakur can be optimistic about winning as neither Rattan nor Bittu will be able to put up a reasonable fight.

State Congress president Kaul Singh Thakur, who was present in the meeting of the screening committee, declined to give details on Hamirpur even as party sources confirmed that the committee has proposed single names for Mandi (Virbhadra Singh) Kangra (Chander Kumar) and Dhani Ram Shandil (Shimla). The name of Narinder Thakur is clubbed with two other names.