Congress releases first list of 46 candidates, fields 19 sitting MLAs

 The Congress on Tuesday declared its first list of 46 candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections in the state with party fielding senior leaders including Kaul Singh Thakur, Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, Mukesh Agnihotri, Asha Kumari and Chander Kumar.

Vikramaditya Singh, son of former chief minister Virbhadra Singh, has again been fielded from Shimla Rural. The party has fielded sitting 19 MLAs from their traditional seats in the first list.

The polling for the 68-member Himachal Pradesh assembly will take place on November 12.

The senior leaders, including chief ministerial aspirants, have also been fielded from their traditional seats.

Asha Kumari will contest from Dalhousie, Chander Kumar from Jawali, Kaul Singh Thakur from Darang, Prakash Chaudhary from Balh (SC), Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu from Nadaun, Mukesh Agnihotri from Haroli and Sanjay Awasthi from Arki.

The party has fielded Kuldip Singh Pathania from Bhattiyat, Ajay Mahajan from Nurpur, Surinder Singh Mankotia from Jaswan-Pragpur, Ashish Butail from Palampur and Chetram Thakur from Seraj.

Congress national spokesperson Kuldeep Singh Rathore will contest from Theog.

The Congress is seeking to oust the BJP and has made “guarantees” to the people of the state. In the 2017 election, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 44 seats while the Congress got 21. 

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.