A step ahead than the other political parties including BJP and Congress in Himachal Pradesh, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday released the first list of candidates for the Assembly elections slated to be held later this year.

The list consists of four names including former BJP MP Dr Rajan Sushant from Fathehpur Assembly seat, Sudershan Jaspa from Lahaul and Spiti, Manish Thakur from Sri Ponta Sahib and Umakant Dogra from Nagrota.

In the absence of a strong third front, the BJP in the 2017 Assembly elections had won 44 seats and formed the government, whereas Congress won only 21 seats.

Presently of the four candidates announced by AAP for these seats, BJP has sitting MLAs from Nagrota (Arun Kumar), Ponta Sahib (Sukh Ram Chaudhary) and Lahaul and Spiti (Dr Ram Lal Markanda), while the sitting MLA (Bhawani Singh Pathania) Fathepur belongs to Congress party.

Rajan Sushant is not a new face for Himachal Pradesh politics nor for AAP. He unsuccessfully attempted to contest the Lok Sabha elections on AAP ticket in 2014 from Kangra parliamentary seat and secured third position.

Rajan Sushant quit AAP in 2016 relinquishing the post of the party’s state convenor. and in October 2020 he floated his political party ‘Hamari Party, Himachal Party’.

He contested the 2017 Assembly elections as an independent candidate.

He re-joined AAP at Mandi on September 10, during the visit of AAP Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.

Sushant, a former member of BJP, is a four-time MLA and had been the youngest member of the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1982 from Jawali Assembly constituency.

He was re-elected to the assembly in 1985, 1998, 2007. He remained a minister in the BJP government from 1998 to 2003.

In 2009 Lok Sabha elections he won from Kangra-Chamba constituency on BJP ticket. Known to be an honest firebrand politician, he was suspended from his own party in April 2011 for charges of anti-party activities after he raised serious corruption charges within the party.

Before joining AAP he had joined the Anna andolan.

Manish Thakur, the candidate from Paonta Sahib, is a former  President of Himachal Pradesh Youth Congress. He had also served as the National General Secretary of the Youth Congress. He joined AAP in March 2022 along with 23 other Youth Congress leaders and is currently the State AAP Vice President.

Nominated from Lahaul-Spiti Sudershan Jaspa a social activist is also a new entrant to AAP and is currently the Lahaul-Spiti district in-charge of AAP. He was a member of Zilla Parishad from 2015 to 2020. He is also the Chairman of the second largest cooperative society of the country, Lahaul Potato Society (LPS).

He unsuccessfully contested the 2017 Assembly elections from Lahaul and Spiti as an independent candidate.

Another new face of AAP, Umakant Dogra is a former BJP leader. He had applied for BJP ticket in 2017, however, he was denied the ticket. In 2018 he joined Aam Aadmi Party and is presently State Vice President of OBC Cell.

After a landslide victory of AAP in the neighbouring state Punjab, AAP has decided to contest all the 68 Assembly constituencies of Himachal Pradesh.