Cong names 59 candidates for HP polls; Virbhadra to contest from Arki

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Wednesday announced its first list of 59 candidates for the November 9 Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls, with Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh being fielded from the Arki constituency in Solan district.

CM Virbhadra Singh fielded from Arki constituency in Solan district. Tribune file

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 18

The Congress on Wednesday announced its first list of 59 candidates for the November 9 Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections, with Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh being fielded from the Arki constituency in Solan district.

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The list was finalised after a marathon meeting of the Congress Central Election Committee chaired by party president Sonia Gandhi. Nominees for the remaining nine seats, including Shimla (Rural), would be announced later.

According to media reports, Singh had earlier said that he wanted to contest the election from a seat which the Congress has not won in previous polls. Arki in Solan district was won by the BJP in the previous two Assembly polls.

Read: BJP announces candidates for all 68 Himachal Assembly seats

State Congress chief Sukhvinder Singh Sukkhu has been fielded from the Nadaun seat, which the latter had unsuccessfully contested in the previous election to the 68-member Assembly.

The Chief Minister’s son, Vikramaditya’s name did not figure in the first list. Singh had two days ago had said that Vikramaditya will contest from his Shimla (Rural) seat.

Late Ayurveda Minister Karan Singh’s son, Aditya Vikram, is in the race from Banjar constituency. Singh passed away in May this year.

The Congress has fielded all its senior state leaders for the election. Rajya Sabha MP Viplove Thakur will contest the election from Dehra Assembly segment, which she had lost in 2012.

Other senior leaders, including AICC secretary Asha Kumari, Kaul Singh Thakur, G S Bali, Mukesh Agnihotri and Gangu Ram Musafir, will contest from Dalhousie, Darang, Nagrota, Haroli and Pachchad, respectively.

The Congress has not declared candidates for the remaining nine Assembly constituencies given there are many aspirants, party sources said. The seats include Kullu, Palampur, Mandi and Theog.

Party veteran Vidya Stokes was supposed to contest from Theog. But Stokes announced quitting politics today.

Assembly Speaker Brij Behari Lal Butail is currently representing Palampur seat.

Former Union Minister Sukh Ram’s son Anil is currently representing Mandi. But he has quit the party and joined the BJP, which has already fielded him from the same seat. With PTI

Constituency No.	Name of constituency	Name of candidate
1	Churah – SC	Surinder Bhardwaj
2	Bharmour - ST	Thakur singh Bharmouri
3	Chamba	Neeraj Nayyar
4	Dalhousie	Smt. Asha Kumari
5	Bhattiyat	Kuldip Singh Pathania
6	Nurpur	Ajay Mahajan
7	Indora - SC	Kamal Kishore
8	Fatehpur	Sujan Singh Pathania
9	Jawali	Chander Kumar
10	Dehra	Ms. Viplov Thakur
11	Jaswan-Pragpur	Surinder Mankotia
12	Jawalamukhi	Sanjay Rattan
13	Jaisinghpur – SC	Yadvinder Goma
14	Sullah	Jagjivan Pal
15	Nagrota	G.S Bali
16	Kangra	Pawan Kajal
18	Dharamshala	Sudhir Sharma
20	Baijnath - SC	Kishori Lal
21	Lahaul & Spiti – ST	Ravi Thakur
24	Banjar	Aditya Vikram Singh
25	Anni - SC	Bansi Lal
26	Karsog - SC	Mansa Ram
27	Sundernagar	Sohan Lal Thakur
28	Nachan - SC	Lal Singh Kaushal
29	Seraj	Chet Ram Thakur
30	Darang	Kaul Singh Thakur
31	Jogindernagar	Jiwan Lal Thakur
32	Dharampur	Chander Shekhar
34	Balh - SC	Prakash Chaudhary
35	Sarkaghat	Pawan Thakur
36	Bhoranj - SC	Suresh Kumar
37	Sujanpur	Rajinder Rana
38	Hamirpur	Kuldeep Pathania
39	Barsar	Inder Dutt Lakhanpal
40	Nadaun	Sukhvider Singh Sukhhu
41	Chintpurni - SC	Kuldip Kumar
42	Gagret	Rakesh Kalia
43	Haroli	Mukesh Agnihotri
44	Una	Sat Pal Raizada
46	Jhanduta - SC	Dr. Biru Ram Kishore
47	Ghumarwin	Rajesh Dharamani
48	Bilaspur	Bumbar Thakur
49	Sri Naina Deviji	Ram Lal Thakur
50	Arki	Virbhadra Singh
52	Doon	Ram Kumar
53	Solan - SC	Col. Dhani Ram Shandil
54	Kasauli - SC	Vinod Sultanpuri
55	Pachhad - SC	Gangu Ram Musafir
56	Nahan	Ajay Solanki
57	Sri Renukaji – SC	Vinay Kumar
58	Paonta Sahib	Kirnesh Jung
59	Shillai	Harshwardhan Chauhan
60	Chopal	Subhash Manglate
62	Kasumpti	Anirudh Singh
63	Shimla	Harbhajan Singh Bhajji
65	Jubbal- Kotkhai	Rohit Thakur
66	Rampur - SC	Nand Lal
67	Rohru - SC	Mohan Lal Brakta
68	Kinnaur - ST	Jagat Singh Negi