Shimla, March 29 (IANS): Two-time Himachal Pradesh legislator Rajinder Rana, who learnt political lessons for years from BJP’s two-time Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal before defeating his 'mentor' in the 2017 Assembly elections as a Congress candidate, met the latter on Friday.

Earlier this week, the BJP gave tickets to all the six Congress rebels, including Rana, who had supported the party in the Rajya Sabha polls, for the June 1 bypolls to be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections to the four seats in the state.

“Today, I paid a courtesy visit to senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Chief Minister, respected Prof Prem Kumar Dhumal at his residence and took his blessings,” Rana wrote on X.

Rana had defeated BJP’s CM candidate Dhumal as a Congress nominee in a straight contest by 1,919 votes from Sujanpur in Hamirpur district in 2017.

Rana, who was quite vocal against the Centre’s Agnipath scheme for defence recruitment, had said that there is strong resentment among the youth and the people of Himachal Pradesh, who feel proud to serve the nation by donning the army uniform, as opposed to the contractual recruitment in the armed forces.

“In my constituency, every third house has a family member in the armed forces. In some of the houses, two to three members are serving the nation,” Rana had told IANS.

A realtor-turned-politician, Rana had won the Sujanpur seat for the first time in 2012 as an Independent candidate.

Rana had vacated the Assembly seat and unsuccessfully contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Hamirpur as a Congress nominee against BJP’s Anurag Thakur, who retained the seat following his victory by a margin of 98,330 votes.