BJP releases first list of 62 candidates for Himachal Pradesh Assembly Elections

The BJP’s list featured only five women, and this year, the party has dropped 11 sitting MLAs, including a cabinet minister, and changed the seats of two ministers

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday released its first list of 62 candidates for the polls to the 68-member Himachal Pradesh assembly, fielding Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur from his current constituency Seraj.

The list was released a day after the party’s central election committee chaired by party President Jagat Prakash Nadda met in the presence Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. The list also comes a day after Congress released names of 46 candidates for the state assembly elections.

BJP’s list featured only five women, and this year, the party has dropped 11 sitting MLAs, including a cabinet minister, and changed the seats of two ministers.

Also Read | Congress announces 46 candidates for Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections

Prominent among those whose names are missing is that of former Chief Minister and veteran party leader Prem Kumar Dhumal. Party sources said the 78-year-old leader, whose son Anurag Thakur is a Union Minister, had conveyed to the party leadership his unwillingness to contest.

Dhumal, who was the Chief Minister from 2007 to 2012, was the party’s chief ministerial candidate in 2017. Dhumal had fought the elections from the Sujanpur constituency, and not the traditional Hamirpur seat, and lost to the Congress candidate.

Forest minister Rakesh Pathania is fielded from the Fatehpur seat in Kangra, and not from the Nurpur seat he has traditionally been fighting from. Similarly, Urban Development Minister Suresh Bhardwaj will contest from Shimla’s Kasumpti seat, and not from the Shimla (Urban) seat that he usually contests from.