Congress announces candidates for 3 assembly bypolls, two BJP turncoats get ticket

The Congress on Friday named candidates for the bypolls on three of the seats that fell vacant after the disqualification of six party rebels from the Himachal Pradesh Assembly this February. The candidate list includes two turncoats -- Captain Ranjit Singh from Sujanpur and Rakesh Kalia from Gagret -- both of who recently quit the BJP after the party did not name them as candidates for the bypolls.

The BJP instead chose as its candidates the Congress rebels who had voted in its favour in the Rajya Sabha polls held on February 27.

Congress leader Vivek Sharma has been declared as the party candidate from Kutlehar assembly constituency.

The six Congress MLAs, Rajinder Rana (Sujanpur), Sudhir Sharma (Dharamshala), Ravi Thakur (Lahaul and Spiti), Inder Dutt Lakhanpal (Barsar), Chetanya Sharma (Gagret) and Devinder Kumar Bhutto (Kutlehar) were disqualified for defying a party whip to be present in Vidhan Sabha and vote in favour of the government during the cut motions and budget on February 29.

Captain Ranjit Singh who had contested the 2022 assembly polls against Congress rebel Rajinder Rana as the BJP candidate and lost by 399 votes, left the party this Wednesday. Now the old rivals have been pitted against each other again, albeit from opposite parties.

Rakesh Kalia, a three-time Congress MLA from Gagret had joined the BJP ahead of the 2022 assembly polls after he was denied ticket but returned to the Congress recently. He would face Chetanya Sharma who is now with the BJP.

Vivek Sharma, son of former Himachal deputy speaker and senior Congress leader Ram Nath Sharma, would be up against BJP's candidate from Kutlehar Devinder Kumar Bhutto.

The party is yet to announce its candidates from Barsar, Dharamshala and Lahaul and Spiti assembly seats. The elections for four Lok Sabha seats and six assembly bypolls would be held on June 1.