As many as a dozen first timers and a few women candidates have managed to win the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections this time.
Sons of two Congress stalwarts are making debut in HP politics, Vikramaditiya Singh son of outgoing Congress chief minister (CM) Virbhadra Singh and Ashish Butail son of outgoing Vidhan Sabha speaker Brij Bihari Lal Butail.
While, Vikramaditiya Singh won the Shimla rural seat, AshishButail won the Palampur seat, both from Congress party.
The sacrifice of Virbhadra Singh, who vacated the Shimla Rural seat for his son Vikramaditiya Singh, shifting to a new turf Arki constituency and also the Congress having done away with the one-family-one-ticket rule that had been followed in Punjab, seems to have worked towards the rising of Vikramaditya Singh.
Same has been for AshishButail who contested from his father BrijBiharilalButail’s turf, Palampur.
The other new faces who have made it to the VidhanSabha include two independent candidates Hoshyar Singh from Dehra and PrakashPrem Kumar Rana from Jogindernagar, Ravinder Kumar (BJP) from Jaisinghpur, Surinder Singh Thakur (Congress) Kullu, SurinderShouri (BJP) Banjar, Rakesh Kumar (BJP) Sunder Nagar, Rajesh Thakur (BJP) from Gagret, Jeet Ram Katwal (BJP) from Jhanduta and Inder Singh (BJP) Balh.
aking an entry to the VidhanSabha, Hoshyar Singh from Dehra defeated sitting BJP MLA Ravinder Singh and a Congress heavyweight Viplove Thakur.
Of the 337 candidates who contested the Assembly elections ,there were a total 19 women candidates out of which BJP had fielded 6, Congress 3, BSP 4, one each from LokGathbandhan Party, Swabhiman Party and Rashtriya Azad Manch. Besides, there were three independent candidates.
Heavyweights and both sitting MLA’s Congress AshaKumari from Dalhousie and BJP SarveenChaudhary from Shahpur, who re-contested the elections have won from their respective seats.
Other women candidates include first timers KamleshKumari (BJP) from Bhoranj, Reeta Devi (BJP) from Indora.