Congress shortlists names for 40 Himachal Assembly seats

Tribune News Service

Pratibha Chauhan

Delhi/Shimla, September 5

The Congress State Election Committee for the Assembly elections held at a meeting in New Delhi today and cleared the names of candidates for 40 of total 68 Assembly seats, including of 20 sitting MLAs. A majority of the 19 committee members, besides all AICC secretaries and the heads of all frontal organisations attended the meeting chaired by HPCC president Pratibha Singh.

Former Union Minister Anand Sharma, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Leader Mukesh Agnihotri and chairman of the State Campaign Committee Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu also attended the meeting.

Regional, caste equations considered

• Candidates were shortlisted after taking into account regional and caste compositions of all 40 Assembly seats
• Leaders lobbied for their supporters but there was consensus on most of the seats
• There was consensus on giving ticket to all 20 sitting MLAs and three AICC secretaries, namely Sudhir Sharma (Dharamsala), Rajesh Dharmani (Ghumarwin in Bilaspur) and Raghubir Bali (Nagrota in Kangra)

Sources said that the candidates were shortlisted after taking into account the regional and caste compositions of each of the 40 Assembly constituencies. Senior leaders lobbied for their supporters but there was consensus on a majority of seats, barring a few in Kangra and Mandi districts. A total of 1,347 aspirants had applied for Congress ticket for the Assembly elections due in November.

It has been reliably learnt that there was consensus on giving ticket to all 20 sitting legislators and three AICC secretaries, namely Sudhir Sharma from Dharamsala, Rajesh Dharmani from Ghumarwin in Bilaspur and Raghubir Bali from Nagrota in Kangra.

Besides, only one name was approved for each Assembly segment where there is no dispute owing to the presence of senior leaders like Kaul Singh Thakur (Drang in Mandi), Kuldeep Pathania (Bhattiyat in Chamba), Ajay Mahajan (Nurpur in Kangra), Kuldeep Kumar (Chintpurni in Una), Chander Kumar (Jawali), Vinod Sultanpuri (Kasauli in Solan), Ram Kumar (Doon in Solan) and Ajay Solanki (Nahan in Sirmaur).

A panel consisting of 10 names has been formed for the prestigious Shimla (Urban) constituency. In about 25 segments, panels consisting of two to four shortlisted names each have been formed so that the Central Election Committee can take the final call on the allotment of party ticket.

A panel has been formed in the Theog Assembly segment in Shimla district from where former state Congress president Kuldeep Rathore is keen to contest. Besides Rathore, Deepak Rathore, who had unsuccessfully contested the 2017 Assembly elections, and Khachi have been included in the panel.

In the Chopal Assembly segment, former MLA Subhash Manglet and HPCC general secretary Rajneesh Khimta have been included in the panel. In the Pachhad Assembly segment of Sirmaur, the names of former minister Gangu Ram Musafir and Dyal Pyari, a BJP rebel who had contested the Pachhad Assembly byelection as an Independent candidate, figure in the panel.

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