Himachal Assembly polls: Congress names 17 more candidates, 5 still pending

Pratibha Chauhan

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Shimla, October 20

Ending the uncertainty over ticket allocation in 17 of the remaining 22 seats, Congress issued the list of candidates while yet again trusting its old faces.

The seats from where Congress is yet to take a call on tickets include Kinnaur, Paonta Sahib, Manali, Jaisinghpur and Hamirpur.

A decision is expected on these seats, tomorrow to enable filing of nominations on time.

Harish Janartha has been given the ticket from the prestigious Shimla (Urban) seat. He had contested the last assembly elections as a rebel Independent candidate but had lost the election to BJP’s Suresh Bhardwaj. Congress had fielded former MLA Harbhajan Singh Bhajji in the 2017 assembly polls.

Ending the dilemma on Bharmour tribal seat in Chamba, the party has once again trusted former minister Thakur Singh Bharmouri. Former MLA Bumber Thakur too has been fielded from Bilaspur (Sadar).

Uncertainty over candidature for the remaining five assembly segments continued as the Central Election Committee (CEC) of the Congress failed to take a final call on the nominees to be fielded from these contentious seats. This includes the ticket from Kinnaur from wheresitting MLA Jagat Singh Negi is facing threat from State Youth Congress President Nigam Bhandari who is very much in the race for the ticket.

Party sources said that Bhandari reportedly met Rahul Gandhi during his Bharat Jodo Yatra to plead his case for ticket allocation.

As such a decision on the tribal seat of Kinnaur from where Negi won the 2017 election by a margin of a little over 100 votes is still pending.

Even though Congress took the lead in finalizing candidates for 46 assembly segments, finalizing the remaining 22 tickets seemed to have been a tight rope walk for Congress.

The delay is being attributed to the fact that party is trying to forge consensus so as to avert a situation of rebellion and keep the various factions, who have been lobbying for the ticket for their supporters pacified.

However, the delay especially after BJP announced its candidates from the remaining six seats, has made the ticket aspirants restive and the party cadres too are lying low, waiting for the final decision. The fact that today was the fourth day for filing of nominations and now only two days, October 21 and 25 remain, the candidates will be left with very little time to prepare for nomination.

Since October 22, 23 and 24 aregovernment holidays, there will no nominations on these three days.

SeatsCandidates

Shimla (Urban) – Harish Janartha

Bharmour – Thakur Singh Bharmouri

Indora (SC)- Malender Rajan

Dehra- Dr Rajesh Sharma

Sullah- Jagdish Sapehia

Kangra – Surinder Singh Kaku

Anni (SC)- Bansi Lal Kaushal

Karsog (SC)- Mahesh Raj

Jogindernagar- Surender Pal Thakur

Dharamspur- Chandershekhar

Sarkaghat- Pawan Kumar

Chintpurni (SC)- Sudarsgan Singh Babloo

Gagret- Cahitanya Sharma

Kutlehar- Devender Kumar Bhutto

Bilaspur- Bumber Thakur

Nalagarh – Hardeep Singh Bawa

The development came a day after the party released its 1st list of 46 candidates.

Bracing for maiden election in the state, AAP has also released two lists of candidates for the polls. They are yet to announce candidates for 10 seats.

BJP meanwhile declared candidates for all Assembly segments in the state.