HP: Palampur’s MLA BBL Butail front runner for Speakers post

Dharamsala, January 7, 2012: The Congress MLA from Palampur constituency in Kangra district is the front runner for the post of Speaker in Himachal Pradesh (HP).

The reliable source said that the final stamp for this decision shall be put in the Congress legislative meeting in Circuit House in Dharamsala on Monday night.

The election for this post is due on 9th in Dharamsala Vidhan Sabha. Kangra district has maximum number of 10 MLAs in the newly vote to power Congress party, which is lead by Vir Bhadra Singh. Butail was also the chief political advisor to previous Vir Bhadra’s government in the state.

Butail is a former revenue minister and belongs to the family that has been affiliated with the Congress from the very beginning. His elder brother Kunj Behari Lal Butial was a former head of the HPCC. Brij Behari Butial won his first election in 1985 from Palampur. Right from the beginning of his political career, he had been squaring off against BJP stalwart Shanta Kumar, with both leaders defeating each other consecutively from the Palampur Assembly constituency.

In the last Assembly elections, Butial was defeated by BJP candidate Parveen Sharma, a Shanta’s protégé. He is a leading tea planter of the state and owns maximum land in Palampur town.

The Butail family was able to retain a majority of its land even after the land ceiling of 300 kanal per person was imposed in the state, as the state government exempted the tea garden land from the land ceiling Act.

The Congress MLA from Chintpurni constituency of Una district is the other name in the list of Congress for the said post.