Experimenting with a new norm for selecting leaders to contest Assembly polls, Himachal Pradesh Congress has got around 400 applications for contesting the Assembly election, expected to be held in the last week of November.

While a few senior leaders apparently have not applied for the ticket, most of the Cabinet Ministers, sitting MlAs and senior party leaders are among the applicants for party ticket.

Himahcal Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson Naresh Chauhan on Tuesday said that the date for filling application was now over and party had got around 400 applications from its leaders and workers. He said around 235 applications had been submitted at the party headquarters in Shimla, while the rest had reached the district or block committee offices and would reach the party headquarters soon.

With 25 applications, the Kotlehar constituency has found maximum claimants for contesting the Assembly poll on Congress ticket. The Shimla Urban seat too has found nine claimants.

Chauhan said that barring Himachal Congress president Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, IPH Minister Vidya Stokes and Transport Minister G.S Bali, most of the senior leaders had applied for the party ticket.

HPCC has got its coffers full as the number of application filed by the aspirants is as per the expectations. The party had fixed a fee of Rs 25,000 for General category candidates and Rs 15000 for reserved categories applicants. The Congress has introduced the system of application for party ticket for the first time in Himachal Pradesh.

HPCC had prepared a proforma of the application and the party leaders were asked to fill it if they wished to contest the elections on party ticket. The proforma prepared for applying for party ticket sought property details of the aspiring candidates and information on their criminal record.

Party had started accepting applications from aspirants on October 1, and extended the last date from October 5 to October 10.