Himachal polls: 275 nominations filed on last day

Shimla:  As many as 275 candidates, including former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, today filed their nomination for the November 9 Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls. With this, the total number of nominations filed for the polls went up to 479.

Today was the last day for filing nominations. In all, 119 candidates filed nomination for 15 seats in Kangra, 74 candidates for 10 seats in Mandi, 64 for eight seats in Shimla, 41 for five seats in Hamirpur, 28 for five seats in Chamba, 29 for five seats in Solan.

Twenty seven candidates filed their nomination for five seats in Sirmaur, 47 for five seats in Una, 17 for four seats in Bilaspur, 23 for four seats in Kullu, five each for one seat in Lahaul and Spiti, and Kinnaur constituencies.

Earlier in the day, Congress leader Deepak Rathore had filed his nomination from Theog seat, but the party later announced that veteran leader and Irrigation and Public Health Minister Vidya Stokes (89) would be the official candidate.

She filed her nomination from Theog in Shimla district. Stokes had left the seat for Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, but he shifted to Arki and she was asked by the party high command to contest from Theog, HPCC president Sukhvinder Singh Sukkhu said.

Stokes has contested assembly polls ten times since 1974 and lost twice in 1977 and 1993. Dhumal filed his nomination from Sujanpur; Sukku entered the fray from Nadaun, while Vikramaditya Singh filed his papers from Shimla (Rural) constituency, vacated by his father Virbhadra Singh.

Former minister Anil Sharma, son of former Union communication minister Sukh Ram who recently joined the BJP, also filed his nomination from Mandi (Sadar) and Deputy Speaker Jagat Singh Negi from Kinnaur. Over two dozen rebel leaders of the Congress and the BJP who were denied tickets also joined the fray as independents.