38 in fray for Himachal's four Lok Sabha seats

A total of 38 candidates willbe in the fray for four Lok Sabha seats from Himachal Pradesh as the last day of withdrawal of nomination ended Wednesday.

Polling for all the four seats will be held May 7.

Twelve candidates will fight it out in Kangra, nine in Mandi, 10 in Hamirpur and seven in Shimla (reserved) constituency.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party have fielded candidates in all four constituencies and for the first time, six women candidates are in the field.

All four sitting MPs - Anurag Thakur (Hamirpur), Varinder Kashyap (Shimla), Rajan Sushant (Kangra) and Pratibha Singh (Mandi) - are seeking re-election, while former two-time BJP chief minister Shanta Kumar is also in the fray from Kangra.

The spotlight has turned on Hamirpur and Mandi from where the BJP's Anurag Thakur, son of two-time chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, and Congress Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh's wife Pratibha Singh, respectively, are again in the fray.

Anurag Thakur is also president of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA).

Hoping to wrest the BJP's pocket borough of Hamirpur, the Congress has pitched BJP rebel Rajinder Rana against Anurag Thakur.