AAP has announced its candidates for all the 68 Assembly constituencies for polls to be held in Himachal Pradesh on 12 November. After the first list of four candidates was released last month, the party finalized the remaining 64 candidates on Thursday.
After an impressive victory in the neighbouring state Punjab, the AAP is vying to contest all the 68 Assembly seats in the state that has been involved in a direct fight between Congress and BJP in the absence of a strong third front.
However, except for former BJP MP Rajan Sushant and Jabna Chauhan, there are no other prominent faces among the other remaining candidates.
A five-time MLA Sushant was a minister in the BJP government from 1998 to 2003 and is known to be an honest firebrand politician who was suspended from BJP in 2011 for anti-party activities after he raised corruption charges within the party.
Jabna Chauhan had won acclaim for being the youngest elected Panchyat Pradhan in the country at the age of 22 years in Panchyati Raj elections held in the state in 2016.
Rest with no big leaders joining the party from BJP and Congress, the AAP is playing on the common man card in allotment of tickets.
The AAP is no new entrant in the electoral politics of the state. It had tried its hand in the previous Lok Sabha elections in 2014, when it fielded its candidates in all the four seats including Rajan Sushant. However, not only did it fail to make a dent, it put up a dismal performance.
The party this time to woo voters in the state has announced several guarantees including better services in the field of health, and education, jobs for the unemployed, unemployment allowance and corruption-free administration.
In the remaining 64 seats the party has fielded Gita Nand Thakur against Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur from Seraj Assembly constituency.
From Churah AAP has fielded Nand Kumar Jaryal, Parkash Chand Bhardwaj Bharmour, Shashi Kant from Chamba, Manish Sareen from Dalhousie, Manisha Kumari from Nurpur, Jagdish Bagga Indora, Capt. Baldev Raj from Jawali, Col. Manish Dhiman from Dehra, Sahil Chauhan from Jaswan-Pragpur, Hoshiyar Singh from Jawalamukhi, Santosh Kumar from Jaisinghpur, Ravinder Singh Ravi from Sullah, Raj Kumar Jaswal from Kangra, Abhishek Thakur from Shahpur, Kulwant Rana from Dharamshala, Sanjay Bhardwaj from Palampur, Anurag Prarthi from Manali, Sher Singh Shera Negi from Kullu, Neeraj Saini from Banjar, Dr. Inder Paul from Anni, Bhagwant Singh Karsog.
From Sundernagar Pooja Thakur has been given the ticket, Jogindernagar Ravinder Paul Singh, Dharampur Rakesh Mandotra, Mandi Shyam Lal, Balh Tara Chand Bhatia, Bhoranj Rajni Kaushal, Sujanpur Anil Rana, Hamirpur Sushil Kumar Surroch, Barsar Gulshan Soni, Nadaun Shanky Thukral, Haroli Ravinder Pal Singh Mann, Una Rajiv Gautam, Kutlehar Anil Mankotiya, Jhanduta Sudhir Suman, Ghumarwin Rakesh Chopra, Bilaspur Amar Singh Chaudhary, Sri Naina Deviji Narender Thakur, Arki Jeet Ram Sharma and Nalagarh Dharampal Chauhan.
Others include Sawarn Singh Saini from Doon, Anju Rathore from Solan, Harmel Dhiman from Kasauli, Sunil Sharma from Nahan, Lt. Col. Ram Krishan from Sri Renukaji, Nathuram Chauhan from Shillai, Chaman Rakesh Ajta from Shimla, Prem Thakur from Shimla Rural, Srikant Chauhan from Jubbal-Kotkhai, Uday Singh Dogra from Rampur, Ashwani Kumar from Rohru, Tarsem Singh from Kinnaur.
Naresh Kumar from Bhattiyat, Pramod Chand from Baijnath, Sunita Thakur Darang, Dhameshwar Ram from Sarkaghat, Ram Paul from Chintpurni, Manohar Dadwal from Gagret, Ankush Chauhan from Pachhad and Uday Singta from Chopal.