Congress is likely to release its first list of candidates for the Assembly elections on October 18.
Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee spokerperson Naresh Chauhan on Saturday said that the first list of candidates might come out on Wednesday. He announced that Congress would possibly declare all its candidates by October 20.
Talking to reporters in Shimla on Saturday, Chauhan said that State Congress unit was in the process of short-listing the candidates, who had applied for Congress ticket. He said that a 15 member committee headed by the State Congress President Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu would short list 3 candidates for each constituency and the names would be sent to the All India Congress Committee in a day or two for the final selection of the candidate.
He said that the process of nomination was scheduled to start from October 16, so the party has picked up the pace of giving final shape to the list of its candidates. As per the election program, October 23 is the last date for filing nominations in Himachal Pradesh.
Chauhan made it clear that the names of some senior leaders were also under consideration, who had not applied for ticket on the prescribed proforma. He said such leaders would have to deposit the required candidate fee in the party account, before their names are considered for the final selection.
He said that the Committee for short-listing candidates consisted of 15 members. The committee would be chaired by State Congress President Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu. The committee has Chief minister Virbhadra Singh, former Union Minister Anand Sharma, former HPCC president Viplove Thakur, IPH Minister Vidya Stokes, Transport Minister G.S. Bali, Forest Minister Thakur Singh Bharmauri, Industry Minister Mukesh Agnihotri, Urban Development Minister Sudhir Sharma, Social Welfare Minister Col. Dhani Ram Shandil, HPCC Vice-president Harsh Mahajan, former Speaker Gangu Ram Mussafir, Harbhajan Singh Bhaji, Ram Nath Sharma as its members. All the head of all frontal organisations would be special invitee in the committee.
Chauhan said that Congress’ preparations for the assembly elections were on track, and the process was accelerated after the visit on AICC Vice-president Rahul Gandhi. He said that AICC had constituted six state level committees for conducting different tasks for the poll preparations and the list of these six committees was released by AICC General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi on Friday.
The committees include, Discipline Committee, committee to shortlist party candidates, committee to prepare and launch party manifesto, committee to organise party election, committee to carry election drive and committee to project and launch party candidates.
State Congress President Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu will also lead the 23 member Himachal Pradesh Campaign Committee besides heading the committee for short-listing candidate. Former HPCC chief Viplove Thakur would be the convener of campaign committee.
Industry and Public Relation Minister Mukesh Agnihotri has been give command of the 28 member Himachal Pradesh Publicity Committees.
Health Minister Thakur Kaul Singh will lead the HP Manifesto Committee while the Transport Minister GS Bali would be the Convenor of this committee.
The 13 member, Himachal Pradesh Congress Coordination Committee would be headed by Himachal Pradesh Congress In-charge Sushil Kumar Shinde. The committee will work for organising party elections.
The Disciplinary Committee would be chaired by AN Vidyarthi.