Congress announces 59 candidates for HP polls; CM to contest from Arki

The Congress on Wednesday announced its first list of 59 candidates for the November 9 Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls, with Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh being fielded from the Arki constituency.

The list was finalised after a marathon meeting of the Congress central election committee chaired by party president Sonia Gandhi. Nominees for the rest nine seats, including Shimla (Rural), would be announced later.

State Congress chief Sukhvinder Singh Sukkhu has been fielded from the Nadaun Assembly seat, which the latter had unsuccessfully contested in the previous election.

The chief minister's son, Vikramaditya's name did not figure in the first list. Singh had two days ago had said that Vikramaditya will contest from his Shimla (Rural) seat.

The Congress has fielded all its senior state leaders for the election. Rajya Sabha MP Viplove Thakur will contest the election from the Dehra Assembly segment, which she had lost in 2012.

Other senior leaders including AICC secretary Asha Kumari, Kaul Singh Thakur, G S Bali, Mukesh Agnihotri and Gangu Ram Musafir will contest from Dalhousie, Darang, Nagrota, Haroli and Pachchad, respectively.

The Congress has not declared candidates for the remaining nine Assembly constituencies given there are many aspirants, party sources said. The seats include Kullu, Mandi and Theog.

Party veteran Vidya Stokes was supposed to contest from Theog. But Stokes announced quitting politics today.

Former Union minister Sukh Ram's son Anil is currently representing Mandi. But he has quit the party and joined the BJP, which has already fielded him from the same seat.