BJP Announces List of 62 Candidates for Key State Polls in India's Himachal Pradesh

The polls to elect a new government in the north Indian state are scheduled to take place on November 12, with the results to be out only on December 8. Candidates can file nomination papers for the elections till October 25.

The federally and state ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced the names of its 62 candidates for the upcoming elections in Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday.

On the list is State Chief Jai Ram Thakur planning to contest the polls in his traditional seat of Seraj, where he won by more than 11,000 votes in 2017.

Former BJP state president Satpal Singh Satti has also been fielded from Una. The politician won three consecutive elections in the constituency in 2003, 2007, and 2012 before losing to Satpal Raizada of the Congress in 2017.

Anil Sharma, son of ex-federal minister Sukh Ram, will fight the polls in the Mandi area. The constituency is regarded as a stronghold of Sharma, considering that he has already won there four times - in 1993, 2007, 2012, and in 2017.

Meanwhile, the Congress, the main opposition party in Himachal Pradesh, released its own list of 46 candidates on Tuesday.

Among the prominent names in the fray are former state party presidents Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu and Kuldeep Singh Rathore, who will be contesting the polls from Nadaun and Theog constituencies respectively.

The third main contender, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), has announced the names of only four candidates so far.

In the outgoing state assembly, the BJP has 44 lawmakers while the Congress managed to win 21 seats. The AAP didn't contest the 2017 polls.