HP CM's wife Cong candidate from Mandi

Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh has managed to get his wife Pratibha Singh the ticket from the Mandi parliamentary seat.

Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh has managed to get his wife Pratibha Singh the ticket from the Mandi parliamentary seat.

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The Cengress Central Election Committee that met in Delhi on Wednesday cleared the name of the sitting member of parliament from the same seat.

Pratibha had won the bypolls to the Lok Sabha last year by defeating Bharatiya Janata Party's former rural development minister Jai Ram with a margin of more than 1.36 lakh votes. The CM and state party chief Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu held deliberations with members of the party's central election committee in the presence of All-India Congress Committee general secretary Ambika Soni, also in-charge of party affairs in Himachal Pradesh.

Virbhadra and Sukhu discussed in detail the prospects of the candidates shortlisted for the four parliamentary seats. The committee deliberated on the candidates for the other seats Shimla, Hamirpur and Kangra.

"The CEC has approved the name of Pratibha Singh from Mandi. The candidates for the other seats have been discussed earlier," Sukhu, who is camping in Delhi, told HT.

Pratibha was elected to the 14th Lok Sabha in 2004 from the same seat. She has been a Lok Sabha member twice during the Congress governments headed by Virbhadra in 2004 and 2013.