The Congress party on Tuesday announced its first list of 46 candidates for the Himachal Pradesh Assembly election.
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Former Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee president Kuldeep Singh Rathore will contest from Theog, former State party president Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu from Nadaun, Congress Legislature Party leader Mukesh Agnihotri from Haroli, former Minister Asha Kumari from Dalhousie and former Minister Kaul Singh from Darang, among others.
The election to the 68-member State Assembly is slated for November 12. The last date for the filing of nominations is October 25, while the scrutiny of papers will be held on October 27. The last date for the withdrawal of papers will be October 29. The counting will take place on December 8.
The Congress has announced that it will contest in all 68 seats. Khimi Ram, who recently switched to the Congress from the BJP, has been named as the party’s candidate from the Chamba seat. Among other prominent candidates are Chander Kumar from Jawali, Kewal Singh Pathania from Shahpur, Sudhir Sharma from Dharamshala, Dhani Ram Shandil from Solan, Harshwardhan Chauhan from Shillai and Vikramaditya Singh from Shimla (Rural) seat.
The ruling BJP has 43 MLAs and the Congress 22 in the current Assembly. There are two Independents and one CPI(M) MLA in the Assembly.