Four nominations were filed on the first day of nominations for four Parliamentary Constituencies (PCs) of Himachal Pradesh that will go to polls on June 1.
This was disclosed by a spokesperson of the Election Department here on Tuesday.
He said that as per the reports received in this office, Ramesh Chand Sarthi (50) village Gindpur, sub-tehsil Bharwain, Una, filed his nomination as an independent candidate from PC Hamirpur, Anil Kumar (31) Village Ghundwin, sub tehsil Rohnat, Sirmaur, from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) filed his papers from Shimla PC.
From Mandi PC, Mahesh Kumar Saini (45) village Sihan, tehsil Balh, Mandi filed his nomination from Himachal Janta Party and Ashutosh Mahant (38) Dhalpur, district Kullu also filed his nomination as an independent candidate from Mandi PC.
However, no nominations were filed from Kangra PC.
As per the schedule announced by Election Commission of India, nominations can be filed from May 7 to May 14 at the designated locations and before the designated ROs or AROs, said the spokesperson of the election department.
He said that nominations will not be filed on May 11 and May 12, being public holidays.
Furthermore, as bye-elections were simultaneously being held in six Assembly constituencies Barsar, Sujanpur, Gagret, Kutlehar, Dharamshala and Lahaul-Spiti, no nominations were filed in any of these constituencies.
These MLAs had cross-voted during the Rajya Sabha elections on February 27 for the state’s lone seat, in favour of BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan, rendering a shocking defeat to Congress candidate Abhishek Manu Sanghvi despite the Congress being in majority with 40 members. There were 25 BJP members and three independent MLAs.
The bye-elections in these six ACs was necessitated, after Congress rebel MLAs were disqualified under the provisions of anti-defection law by the State Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on February 29, for defying the party whip to be present in the House to vote in favour of the state government during the cut motion and Budget session.
After disqualification these six rebel MLAs ceased to be the members of the House. They later joined BJP and are contesting the by-elections on BJP ticket.
These include Rajinder Rana (Sujanpur), Sudhir Sharma (Dharamshala), Ravi Thakur (Lahaul-Spiti), Inder Dutt Lakhanpal (Barsar), Devinder Kumar Bhutto (Kutlehar) and Chaitanya Sharma (Gagret).