Himachal Pradesh assembly elections: Congress announces 46 candidates, fields all sitting MLAs

New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday released its first list of 46 candidates for the November 12 assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh, fielding its legislature party leader Mukesh Agnihotri from Haroli in Una district. The party nominated former state Congress chiefs Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu and Kuldeep Singh Rathore from Nadaun and Theog, respectively. Former state minister and former All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary Asha Kumari has been fielded from her Dalhousie seat. The party has fielded all its sitting MLAs, including former chief minister Virbhadra Singh's son Vikramaditya Singh from the Shimla Rural constituency. However, the first list of candidates did not include the name of state Congress chief Pratibha Singh. She is the sitting MP from Mandi and the wife of former chief minister Virbhadra Singh.

Congress leader Alka Lamba said the names of the remaining 22 candidates would be declared soon.

Former BJP leader Dyal Pyari, who switched over to the Congress a few days ago, has been fielded from the Pachhad (SC) seat.

Khimi Ram, who had also joined the Congress sometime ago from the BJP, is the Congress candidate from the Banjar assembly seat.

Congress leader Aditya Vikram Singh, who had unsuccessfully contested the last election from Banjar and was hoping for renomination, resigned from the party in protest after the candidate list was announced Tuesday evening, sources said.

Aditya Vikram Singh bagged more than 45 per cent of the votes in 2017 and was defeated by Surender Shourie of the BJP.

According to the Congress candidate list, former state minister and former state party chief Kaul Singh Thakur will contest from the Darang assembly seat. His daughter, Champa Thakur, has been nominated from Mandi, giving a go-by to the party's "one family, one ticket" formula.

The Election Committee of Indian National Congress has selected the following candidates for the ensuing elections to the Legislative Assembly of Himachal Pradesh. pic.twitter.com/06qpW2G6jm — Congress (@INCIndia) October 18, 2022

Col (retd) Dhani Ram Shandil will contest from his Solan seat and Harshwardhan Singh Chauhan from his Shillai assembly constituency.

Rajinder Rana, who had defeated former chief minister P K Dhumal in the Sujanpur constituency in the last election, has been renominated from the seat.

Former minister B D Bali's son Raghubir Singh Bali will contest from Nagrota.

The party has nominated former MP Chander Kumar from the Jawali assembly seat in Kangra district.

Voting for the 68 assembly seats in the hill state is scheduled for November 12 and the counting of votes will take place on December 8.

The last date for the filing of nominations is October 25.

The Congress is seeking to wrest power from the BJP in the hill state this time and has made a number of promises to the electorate, including the implementation of old pension scheme in the state.

In the 68-member assembly, the BJP currently has 43 members and the Congress 22. There are two Independents and one CPI(M) MLA.

Himachal Pradesh assembly polls: Newly reconstituted BJP election panel meets to finalise candidates

The newly reconstituted Central Election Committee of the BJP met for the first time on Tuesday evening to finalise the party's candidates for the Himachal Pradesh assembly polls. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda attended the meeting, among others.

The party had recently brought in several new faces in the CEC while dropping a few.

Official sources said the party top brass is likely to finalise the names for most of the seats in the meeting. 

The CEC, which now has 15 members, has new entrants such as B S Yediyurappa, Union ministers Bhupender Yadav and Sarbananda Sonowal, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Om Mathur, party's OBC Morcha president K Laxman, Iqbal Singh Lalpura, Satyanarayan Jatiya and Sudha Yadav.

The BJP core group from the hill state had on Monday held extensive deliberations to narrow down the list of probables, with Home Minister Amit Shah and party national president J P Nadda also holding a discussion on it.

The BJP is in power in the state and has been working overtime to break the trend of the incumbent party losing the election.

Himachal BJP president Suresh Kashyap has said the BJP also held an internal poll through ballot papers among its office-bearers across the state to assess their opinion on prospective candidates.