The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday announced its first list of candidates for the Himachal Pradesh elections and named four candidates. AAP has announced candidates for Fatehpur, Nagrota Bagwan, Paonta Sahib, and Lahaul-Spiti constituencies. Himachal Pradesh will face polls later this year for the 68-member assembly.
The AAP, which is seeking to present itself as a political alternative in Himachal Pradesh, has become the first party to announce candidates for the polls.
AAP has decided to field former MP Rajan Sushant for Fatehpur, Manish Thakur from Paonta Sahib constituency in Sirmaur, Umakant Dogra from Nagrota Bagwan in Kangra district and Sudarshan Jaspa from Lahaul and Spiti.
Sandeep Pathak, the party’s election co-incharge for the state, congratulated candidates who have got party tickets. “Congratulations to all candidates. People of Himachal Pradesh have a lot of expectations from you,” he said in a tweet.
Umakant Dogra is a former BJP worker and is the state vice-president of AAP’s Other Backward Classes cell. Manish Thakur is a former state Youth Congress president. He joined AAP in March of this year.
Rajan Sushant was a minister in the Prem Kumar Dhumal-led BJP government from 1998 to 2000 and was the MP from the Kangra Lok Sabha seat from 2009–14. He joined AAP months before the 2014 general election and unsuccessfully contested the election from Kangra on the party ticket. He later quit the party and rejoined it.