BJP announces list of candidates for Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday released the list of 68 candidates for the upcoming Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections.Former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal would be contesting from Sujanpur assembly seat.

In the 2012 assembly elections, Dhumal had contested from Hamirpur seat and won by a margin of 9,302 votes.Ratan Singh Pal will be contesting from Arki seat from where Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh is likely to contest. Pramod Sharma will contest from Shimla (Rural) constituency. Shimla Rural seat is at present held by Virbhadra Singh.

The Election Commission (EC) on October 12 announced elections in Himachal Pradesh. The voting will take place on November 9 and the results will be declared on December 18. The term of the current assembly ends on January 7, 2018. While the main contest is considered between the ruling Congress and the opposition BJP, the CPI(M), which has so far had a minuscule representation in the legislative assembly, is keen on putting up a fight. The state unit of the CPI(M) had on October 9 released a list of 14 candidates for the elections. The list included names of the former mayor of Shimla Municipal Corporation Sanjay Chauhan and Singha, a former MLA.