The BJP has introduced some fresh faces and reshuffles others for Himachal Pradesh assembly elections
The BJP has denied giving tickets to 11 sitting MLAs, including two ministers, in its candidate’s list for Himachal Pradesh.
While, Congress released a list of 46 names for the elections, after a few hours, the BJP also released its list for the Himachal Pradesh elections.
Chief Minister Jairam Thakur will be the front-runner as CM. He will be filing his nominations from the Seraj constituency. For the first time since the 1980s, the party is trying to reverse the trend of current parties losing polls.
Father of Union minister Anurag Thakur and two-time ex-CM Prem Kumar Dhumal has been excluded from the list. Gulab Singh Thakur, also has been excluded from the list from Jogindernagar. Both Dhumal and Gulab had lost in the 2017 elections.
The Congress has confirmed the tickets for both Pawan Kajal and Lakhwinder Rana from Kangra and Nalagarh, respectively.
From Fatehpur, forest minister Rakesh Pathania will contest elections. In the last election, Nurpur contested the election from this seat. While the party has moved the seat of urban development minister Suresh Bhardwaj moved from Shimla Urban to Kasumpti.
The BJP allocates five seats to women
In total, the party has fielded five women for the elections, of which four are doctors and one is a retired IAS officer. In all five women, there is a new face, Indira Kapoor who is contesting from Chamba. She would be replacing Pawan Nayyar. While, Cabinet minister Sarveen Chaudhary has been fielded from Shahpur, with MLA Reena Kashyap getting Pachad and Rita Dhaman getting Indora. Shashi Bala will again contest from the Rohru’s apple belt.
From Jhanduta, retired government official J.R. Katwal will be contesting. Captain Ranjit Singh will be contesting from Sujanpur, where Dhumal faces defeat in 2017.
Dr Janak Raj will fight from Bharmour, while Dr Rajesh Kashyap gets the Solan ticket. Senior leader Rakesh Jamwal will be contesting from Sundarnagar and Trilok Jamwal will be contesting for the first time from Bilaspur Sadar. The party has also given a chance to two Ayurvedic practitioners, Rajiv Bindal and Rajiv Saizal, who will be fighting from Nahan and Kasauli, respectively.
DO FOLLOW: Himachal Pradesh: BJP releases second and final list of 6 candidates for assembly elections
