Congress takes lead: CEC clears 40 tickets, Pratibha Singh not to contest

Update: 2022-09-27 18:21 GMT

shimla: Taking a lead over the ruling BJP, opposition Congress on Tuesday finalised 40 tickets which include all its 21 sitting MLAs, several former ministers and ex-MLAs, AICC secretaries but did not clear names of two former party presidents –Kuldeep Singh Rathore and Kuldeep Kumar.

The elections to the 68-member state assembly are slated to be held in November 2022.

Viplove Thakur, another former party President and ex-Rajya Sabha member had herself opted out, sources say.

Incumbent PCC president Pratibha Singh, who is an MP from Mandi, will not be fielded by the party and rather asked to campaign in the state.

Former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh's son Vikramaditya Singh will be re-fielded from Shimla (rural)—a constituency his father and he himself had nursed well during the past 10 years.

Leader of opposition Mukesh Agnihotri and former PCC president Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu have been given tickets from their

respective constituencies Haroli (Una) and Nadaun ( Hamirpur) while Asha Kumari, five-time Congress MLA and former AICC incharge in Punjab, will contest her stronghold Dalhousie.

A meeting of the party's central election committee (CEC) was held in New Delhi to finalise names of candidates for the Himachal Pradesh Assembly poll. Interim party president Sonia Gandhi presided over the meeting.

Others who attended the meeting included Congress leaders Ambika Soni, Veerappa Moily and KC Venugopal besides PCC president Pratibha Singh and leader of opposition Mukesh Agnihotri.

Former union minister Anand Sharma, who had earlier resigned from the party's steering committee on Himachal Pradesh elections, attended the meeting and apparently tried to push names of some of his favourites for contesting the forthcoming elections.

Sharma, a member of the G23 group had declined to contest as was earlier suggested by some Congress leaders. He has expressed willingness to campaign in the polls.

"The party has made a clear formula that all sitting MLAs will get the tickets. This helped some of the voluenerable MLAs viz Jagat Singh Negi (Kinnaur) and Nand Lal (Rampur) to save their tickets and party refused to consider claims of two young leaders from the area."

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