Himachal Assembly elections are turning interesting with each passing day. This time, CM Jairam Thakur’s home district has maximum contestants in fray. 11 candidates are participating in the poll from Joginder Nagar seat.
Now in upcoming Himachal Assembly election there would be 413 contestants in fray as 92 candidates have withdrawn their nomination. The last date for filing nominations was October 25 and the date for scrutiny of nominations was October 27. Candidates were allowed to withdraw their candidature
till October 29.
Most of the candidates in the contest are in Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur’s home district Mandi’s Joginder Nagar seat. Though CM Thakur is contesting from Seraj and there are 6 contestants fighting from this seat.
A total of 551 candidates had filed their nominations out of which 46 candidates were removed following scrutiny of their papers. The remaining 505 had qualified but after the withdrawal of nomination there are only 413 candidates in fray now.
Of the 413 candidates, the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, and Aam Aadmi Party have 68 candidates each fielded in every constituency.
A maximum of 11 candidates are in the fray from the Joginder Nagar Assembly constituency. In many places, independents might a tough competition to Congress and BJP by disturbing the vote equation. After the ruling government has successfully been able to make 11 rebellions to withdraw their nomination, there are only three rebellions left who are contesting independent specifically from Mandi. The rebel BJP candidates in the district are Gian Chand from Nachan, former minister Roop Singh’s son Abhishek Thakur from Sundernagar, and Parveen Sharma from Mandi.
Meanwhile, rebel Congress candidate Lal Singh Kaushal withdrew his name from the Nachan seat, from where he unsuccessfully contested on the party ticket last time.
AAP rebel Gaurav Sharma withdrew his papers from Shimla’s (Urban) seat and announced support for BJP candidate Sanjay Sood. 50 candidates were left in the Shimla district after eight candidates withdrew their nominations. A total of 90 candidates remained in the fray in Kangra district which has a maximum of 15 seats as 25 candidates withdrew their names on the last day of withdrawal of candidature. The state goes to poll on November 12 and the results will be announced on December 8.