The Congress on Sunday cleared the nominations of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh’s son from Shimla Rural and Minister Kaul Singh Thakur’s daughter from Mandi for the Himachal Pradesh Assembly poll, relaxing its “one family, one ticket” formula.
Just a day before the filing of nomination for the November 9 election comes to an end, the party announced its final list of nine candidates.
The party fielded Himachal Pradesh Youth Congress president and Mr. Virbhadra Singh’s son Vikramaditya Singh from the prestigious Shimla Rural constituency, earlier held by his father, and State Minister Kaul Singh Thakur’s daughter Champa Thakur from Mandi (Sadar).
The Congress had initially dithered over fielding Mr. Vikramaditya Singh and Ms. Champa Thakur, but gave in to pressure at the last minute, party sources said.
According to the sources, the Congress was taking seriously its “one family, one ticket” formula, whereby only one member of a family would be made party candidate.
This was the reason for the delay in declaring the candidates for Shimla Rural and Mandi seats.
Second list
Earlier in the day, the party released its second list of seven candidates, withholding the names of its nominees for just two seats —— Shimla Rural and Mandi (Sadar).
About an hour later, the party, however, cleared the nominations of Mr. Vikramaditya Singh and Ms. Champa Thakur.
Arki for Virbhadra
Mr. Virbhadra Singh had earlier publicly declared that his son would contest from his seat. The Chief Minister has moved to the Arki Assembly seat in Solan district and the party has declared his candidature from there.
Mr. Kaul Singh has been fielded from the Darang Assembly constituency.
Ms. Champa Thakur’s seat was held by former Union Minister Sukh Ram’s son Anil Sharma. Mr. Anil Sharma has quit the party and is now the BJP candidate from the seat.
Monday is the last day for filing of nominations for the election to the 68-member Assembly. The Congress had on October 18 announced its first list of 59 candidates.