Himachal Pradesh: Candidates hailing from political families, dominates the first list of Congress

Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) [India], October 19 (ANI): Soon after Himachal Pradesh Congress Legislature Party released the first list of 46 candidates on Tuesday ahead for the upcoming Assembley elections, it was revealed that Party gave priority to the members belonging to political families.
The Congress released the first list of 46 candidates for Himachal polls late Tuesday evening. A total of 13 candidates, comprising 28 per cent of the total, have been selected from political families.
This list includes the party's sitting legislator from Shima Rural Constituency, Vikramaditya Singh, son of late former 6 times Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, Virbhadra Singh, Rohit Thakur, pitted in Jubbal-Kothkai constituency is the son of former Chief Minister, Ram Lal Thakur.
"Daughter of Kaul Singh Thakur Thakur, Champa Thakur has bagged candidature from Mandi, Sudhir Sharma son of former minister Pandit Sant Ram from Dharamsala, Ashish Butail from Palampur is the son of former Legislative Assembly Speaker Brij Bihari Lal Butail, Son of former minister GS Bali, Raghuveer Singh Bali has been given a ticket from Nagrota Bagwan assembly segment. Vinod Sultanpuri son of former MP KD Sultanpuri has been finalised from Kasauli," ANI learned.
Notably, Ajay Mahajan son of former Minister Sat Mahajan got a candidature from the Nurpur segment.
Bhawani. Sohan Lal Thakur from Sundernagar is brother of former MLA Sher Singh Thakur, etc.
In the list of 46 candidates, all the 19 sitting MLAs of the Congress have been fielded again while 6 are new faces on the list.
It is worth mentioning that, the ticket of sitting MLA Jagat Singh Negi from Kinnaur is yet to be finalized.
The Congress on Tuesday declared its first list of 46 candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.
The two districts of Himachal Pradesh Kangra and Mandi, play an important role in the formation of the government as they have a maximum number of assembly constituencies. Out of 15 assembly constituencies of Kangra, the Congress has announced candidates for only 10 seats, while the candidate on five seats is yet to be finalized. Similarly, there are 10 assembly constituencies in Mandi district, out of which only five candidates have been pitted.
The party has distributed the tickets to most of the legislators who won in 2017.
However, six new faces of Congress was inducted in the list, including Yashwant Singh Khanna from Churah, Khimi Ram from Banjar, Vivek Kumar from Jhandutta, Dayal Pyari from Pachhad Sirmaur, Rajneesh Kimta from Chopal and Kuldeep Singh Rathore from Theog constituency.
In the 2017 election, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 44 seats while the Congress got 21. (ANI)