After several days of uncertainty and procrastination, the Congress high command announced its first list of 46 candidates for the Himachal Pradesh elections to be held on November 12, which is yet to do so.
However, the Congress is still discussing the remaining 22 seats.
Though the names had already been finalized, differences over some candidates prevented the party from announcing the list. Most of the sitting MLAs have their name in the list except Kinnaur, where MLA Jagat Singh Negi won last time. The party has decided to stop the name on this tribal seat, for which state Youth Congress President Nigam Bhandari has staked claim.
Importantly, former minister Kaul Singh Thakur and his daughter Champa Thakur have been given tickets from Darang and Mandi Sadar constituencies, ignoring the “one family, one ticket” rule.
In this list, there are three women candidates including MLA Asha Kumari from Dalhousie. While finalizing the names, caste and regional equations have been weighed. The party also seems to have taken into account different lobbies within the state unit. Leader of Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri from Haroli and Sukhwinder Sukhu from Nadaun have got tickets.
Sources said the finalization of the first list caused a lot of trouble to the party high command. Sources said that differences between Anand Sharma, state unit chief Pratibha Chauhan and Leader of Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri came to the fore in the meeting of the Central Election Committee.
The party may face further challenges in finalizing the remaining constituencies. The seats where the party is finding it difficult to decide on candidates include Shimla (Urban), where there were more than three dozen applicants, and Bharmour (Chamba) where there was a tussle between former minister Thakur Singh Bharmouri and Youth Congress general secretary Amit. The struggle is going on. Bharmauri.
The party has also not finalized its candidates for Kangra’s Jwalamukhi and Dehra seats in view of the BJP’s list. With reports of five-time MLA Ravinder Singh Ravi and former minister Ramesh Dhawala switching sides after the BJP did not give tickets, the party is adopting a wait-and-watch policy for two seats.
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