A day after the Supreme Court refused to stay the disqualification of the six rebel Congress MLAs from the assembly, chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Pradesh Congress Committee president Pratibha Singh are camping in Delhi to decide on candidates for the four Lok Sabha seats and to deliberate on nominees for the six assembly seats that will go to the polls simultaneously on June 1.
Six seats fell vacant after the Congress legislators who cross-voted for the defeat of their party candidate in Himachal were disqualified for defying the whip.
Pratibha Singh attended the meeting of the Congress Working Committee and later participated in the central election committee meeting with Sukhu.
A total of 36 Congress leaders have applied to contest elections from four Lok Sabha seats of Himachal Pradesh. Of these, the maximum applications have come from the Shimla parliamentary constituency. The Congress has received 16 applications from Shimla, 13 from Kangra, five from Hamirpur, and only two from Mandi. Each applicant has also paid a fee of ₹10,000 each to Himachal Congress as per the rules.
From the Shimla parliamentary seat, the Congress is contemplating to field Congress Scheduled Caste cell chief Amit Nanda and first-time MLA from Kasauli Vinod Sultanpuri. “Nothing has been finalised as, yet the party is just shortlisting names,” said general secretary Rajnish Kimta.
