Congress fields Virbhadra's son from Shimla Rural
About an hour later, the party, however, cleared the nominations of Vikramaditya Singh and Champa Thakur.
New Delhi: The Congress on Sunday cleared the nominations of chief minister Virbhadra Singh’s son from Shimla Rural and minister Kaul Singh Thakur’s daughter from Mandi for the Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls, relaxing its “one family, one ticket” formula.
Just a day before the filing of nomination for the November 9 election comes to an end, the party announced its final list of nine candidates.
The party fielded Himachal Pradesh Youth Congress president and Virbhadra Singh’s son Vikramaditya Singh from the prestigious Shimla Rural constituency, earlier held by his father, and state minister Kaul Singh Thakur’s daughter Champa Thakur from Mandi (Sadar).
The Congress had initially dithered over fielding Vikramaditya Singh and Champa Thakur, but gave in to pressure at the last minute, party sources said.
According to the party sources, the Congress was taking its “one family, one ticket” formula, whereby only one member of a family would be made party candidate, seriously and this was the reason for the delay in declaring the candidates for Shimla Rural and Mandi seats.
Earlier in the day, the party released its second list of seven candidates, withholding the names of its nominees for just two seats — Shimla Rural and Mandi (Sadar).
About an hour later, the party, however, cleared the nominations of Vikramaditya Singh and Champa Thakur.
Virbhadra Singh had earlier publicly declared that his son would contest from his seat. The chief minister has moved to the Arki Assembly seat in Solan district and the party has declared his candidature from there.