Congress's 'one family, one ticket' doesn't apply to Virbhadra's son

The Congress on Sunday put aside its ‘one family, one ticket’ rule and cleared the candidature of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh’s son Vikramaditya for the November 9 Assembly elections.

Vikramaditya, who is also the president of the Himachal Youth Congress, will contest the election from Shimla Rural, a seat vacated by his father. The chief minister will stand from Arki, which is considered a difficult seat.

The Central Election Committee of the Congress also decided to field Champa Thakur, the daughter of Health Minister and former state unit chief Kaul Singh Thakur, from the Mandi Assembly seat.

The two names figured in the third and the final list of Congress candidates released late on Sunday evening.

Earlier in the day, the Congress had released a list of eight candidates which announced that Deepak Rathore would be standing from Theog, a constituency represented by party veteran Vidya Stokes.

The candidature of Rathore — considered a close associate of Rahul Gandhi — appears to not have gone down well with the chief minister, who was keen to contest from Theog at the request of Stokes.

Monday is the last date for filing nominations for the elections, which will see a keen fight between the Congress and BJP.

Among the candidates declared on Sunday are Kewal Singh Pathania from Shahpur and Ashish Butail from Palampur. Palampur is currently held by outgoing Speaker and Ashish’s father Brij Bihari Lal Butail. The outgoing Speaker has opted out of electoral politics.

The Congress had annouced a ‘one family, one ticket’ formula ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections to discourage party leaders from fielding family members in polls.