Himachal elections: Congress releases second list of 17 candidates

Earlier this week, the party had declared the names of 46 candidates for the 68-member House. The announcement of names of the remaining five candidates is awaited

The Congress has released its second list of 17 candidates for the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections to be held on November 12.

The Congress is yet to declare the candidates for five seats. There is uncertainty over the candidature of former deputy speaker of the Vidhan Sabha, Jagat Singh from Kinnaur. (HT file photo)

Earlier this week, the party had declared the names of 46 candidates for the 68-member House. The announcement of names of the remaining five candidates is awaited.

In the second list, the Congress has fielded former minister Thakur Singh Bharmouri from Bharmour. Thakur Singh was first elected to the assembly in 1982 and has been the representative of Bharmour in 1985, 1993, 2003 and 2012. He was the forest minister from 2012-17. He lost the last elections to Jiya Lal Kapoor of the BJP. This time, the saffron party has fielded Janak Raj Pakhretia, a neurosurgeon and former senior medical superintendent of Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital, Shimla.

The Congress has allotted the ticket to Harish Janartha from Shimla. He is a former deputy mayor, who had unsuccessfully contested the last Vidhan Sabha elections as a rebel candidate but had lost to the BJP’s Suresh Bhardwaj. The Congress had fielded former MLA Harbhajan Singh Bhajji in the 2017 assembly elections. This time, the BJP has shifted Bhardwaj to nearby Kasumpti assembly segment.

The Congress has fielded Jagdish Sapehia from Sulah. Sapehia was earlier chairman of the Kangra Co-operative Bank.

Former Congress MLA Bhumber Thakur is the party nominee from Bilaspur Sadar.

The party is yet to declare the candidates for five seats. There is uncertainty over the candidature of former deputy speaker of the Vidhan Sabha, Jagat Singh from Kinnaur. State Youth Congress chief Nigam Bhandari has been vying for the ticket from Kinnaur and had met Rahul Gandhi recently to plead his case. Jagat Singh had defeated the BJP’s Tejwant Negi by 120 votes in the last elections.

The Congress has fielded Hardeep Singh Bawa, the chief of the Congress frontal organisation of Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC). Bawa had rebelled against the Congress in the last elections and fought as an independent candidate.

Surender Singh Kaku is the Congress candidate from Kangra. Kaku, a former Congress MLA, had switched sides to the BJP but returned recently.

The Congress released the first list of its candidates two days ago. But the party adopted a wait and watch approach as it feared rebellion at many places.

The names of the candidates in the second list are:

1) Thakur Singh Bharmouri, Bharmour (ST)

2) Malender Rajan, Indora (SC)

3) Rajesh Sharma, Dehra

4) Jagdish Sapehia, Sullah

5) Surender Singh Kaku, Kasngra

6) Bansi Lal Kaushal, Ani

7) Mahesh Raj, Karsog

8) Naresh Kumar, Nachan

9) Surender Pal Thakur, Jogindernagar

10) Chandershekhar, Dharampur

11) Pawan Kumar, Sarkaghat

12) Sudarshan Singh Babloo, Chintpurni

13) Chaitanya Sharma, Gagret

14) Devender Kumar Bhutto, Kutlehar

15) Bumber Thakur, Bilaspur

16) Hardeep Singh Bawa, Nalagarh

17) Harish Janartha, Shimla