Rugby players from Himachal Pradesh walked into a Delhi residence on Monday, 26 October 2026 — and found a former Sports Minister ready to listen, not lecture. BJP MP Anurag Thakur, who represented Hamirpur and once ran the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, welcomed the state's rugby contingent for what he described as a wide-ranging conversation on the sport's future in the hill state.

Thakur shared the meeting on X, writing that 'Himachal Pradesh has no shortage of sporting talent' and that players across various national and international competitions have 'brought honour to Devbhoomi.' The post called for shared, concerted effort to make Himachal Pradesh a genuine sporting destination — khel bhoomi — in the truest sense.

Coaches, managers, and a conversation on growing rugby roots

The delegation that sat down with Thakur included Dharmendra Chaudhary, coach of the Himachal Pradesh Rugby Team; Chandra Mohan Sharma, Head of Delegation; and team managers Trishla Devi and Vijay Kumari. Thakur said the dialogue covered talent scouting, training pathways, and expanding the pool of Himachal players competing at the national level.

Rugby remains a niche discipline within India's sporting ecosystem, with meaningful domestic infrastructure concentrated in only a handful of states. For a mountainous state like Himachal Pradesh, building a consistent pipeline of rugby athletes requires sustained coaching support and access to competitive fixtures — both areas the team's officials raised directly.

Khelo India roots and what an MP's engagement signals

Thakur's interest is more than ceremonial. During his tenure as Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, he oversaw a significant expansion of the Khelo India programme, which was designed precisely to surface talent in non-cricket, non-metro disciplines at the state level. That policy lineage gives his conversations with state teams a practical weight — he knows the funding levers and the bottlenecks.

Successive central governments have encouraged MPs to engage directly with state-level teams in under-resourced sports, with the idea that a legislator's advocacy can accelerate budget allocations and infrastructure decisions. Himachal has periodically flagged its athletes' performances at national events to build a case for greater central backing — and a direct meeting with an MP of Thakur's sports-policy profile is exactly the kind of access that case needs.

The state's budget allocations for rugby coaching centres, and Himachal Pradesh's showing in upcoming national rugby championships, will be the real measure of whether this conversation translates into something on the ground.