Thaindian News

Shimla, Oct 14 (IANS) The two major political parties in Himachal Pradesh, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Wednesday did not name their candidates even as nominations opened for the by-elections to two assembly constituencies.
Rohru and Jawali constituencies fell vacant after the respective legislators from there - Virbhadra Singh and Rajan Sushant - contested and won the Lok Sabha elections in May.

“On the first day of filing the nomination papers, no candidate of any political party has filed the papers,” Himachal Chief Electoral Officer Anil Khachi told IANS.

He said the last date of filing the papers is Oct 21 and the election would take place Nov 7.

For the Congress, much is at stake in Rohru, which has been the stronghold of Virbhadra Singh since 1983. Virbhadra Singh, who has been chief minister five times and is currently union steel minister, has won all the seven elections he contested from there with huge margins.

Virbhadra Singh’s wife, Pratibha Singh, a former MP from Mandi, is the prospective candidate from Rohru.

She is likely to be pitched against BJP’s Khushi Ram Balnatah, who has lost four assembly elections in a row to Virbhadra Singh.

From Jawali, Rajan Sushant’s wife Sudha Sushant is likely to contest against the Congress’ Sujan Singh Pathania.

The ruling BJP is confident of wining both seats.

In the 2007 elections to the 68-member assembly, the BJP won 41 seats, the Congress 23, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) one and independents three seats. The BSP legislator later joined the BJP.