15 candidates in fray for Himachal bypolls to three Assembly seats

Shimla: After scrutiny of nominations, 15 candidates were left in the fray for the bypolls to three Assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh, the Chief Electoral Officer said on Monday.

The candidates for bye-elections to Dehra, Hamirpur and Nalagarh can withdraw nominations till June 26.

Now, five candidates are in the fray in Dehra, four in Hamirpur and six in Nalagarh for the election to be held on July 10.

From the Dehra seat in Kangra District, Kamlesh (53) of the Congress, Hoshyar Singh (57) of the BJP and three Independents, Sulekha Devi (59), Arun Ankesh Syal (34) and Sanjay Sharma (56) are in the fray.

From Hamirpur, Ashish Sharma (37) of the BJP, Pushpinder Verma (48) of Congress and two Independents Pradeep Kumar (58) and Nand Lal Sharma (64) are in the fray.

From Nalagarh, Hardeep Singh Bawa (44) of the Congress, KL Thakur (64) of the BJP, Kishori Lal Sharma (46) of the Swabhiman Party and three Independents Gurnam Singh (48), Harpreet Singh (36) and Vijay Singh (36) are in the fray.

The Congress has fielded Chief Minister Sukhu’s wife Kamlesh Thakur from Dehra.

A political greenhorn, Kamlesh Thakur will contest against BJP nominee and two-time legislator Hoshiyar Singh, who won the seat as an Independent candidate in 2022.

Incidentally, Chief Minister Sukhu is a four-time sitting MLA from Nadaun in the adjacent Hamirpur District close to Dehra.

The bypolls for the three Assembly seats in Himachal will be held on July 10 and the results will be announced on July 13.

The BJP’s candidates KL Thakur from Nalagarh and Ashish Sharma from Hamirpur won the seats as Independent candidates in 2022, before joining the BJP earlier this year.

The duo, along with Hoshiyar Singh, resigned from their Assembly posts in March and joined the BJP.

The bypolls were necessitated after the Speaker accepted their resignations on June 4.