Cong clears 63 names, no ticket for Pratibha

The Congress, in its bid to speed up the party's campaign in the run up to the Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls, on Sunday cleared 12 more names, raising the tally of candidates to 63. It, however, denied a ticket to state party chief Virbhadra Singh's wife Pratibha Singh, who was a contender for Kasumpati. Instead, Shimla Zila Parishad Chairman Anirudh Singh has been fielded from the seat.

This is the second time that Pratibha Singh is being denied a ticket. In the 2009 Assembly bypoll, the party did not clear her name from Rohru. The seat was vacated by Virbhadra following his election to the Lok Sabha.

Kuldeep Rathore, a PCC general secretary and a loyalist of Union Minister for Commerce, Industry and Textiles Anand Sharma was another contender for ticket.

Virbhadra's close confidant Harish Janartha, a former deputy mayor of Shimla, was also chosen as the party candidate from Shimla (Urban). Here too, former MLA Harbhajan Singh Bhajji failed to secure the ticket. Another contender Vineet Gautam also met the same fate.

On Saturday, Virbhadra's name was cleared by the Central Election Committee headed by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi for Shimla (Rural).

While Vidya Stokes is the candidate from Theog, Vijai Singh Mankotia will contest from Shahpur. Only 51 names were clear till Saturday evening.

The party also ended the suspense over Ajay Mahajan, son of former minister and veteran leader late Sat Mahajan — he will contest from Nurpur. For this seat, AICC General Secretary Rahul Gandhi has been backing a youth leader, Manoj Pathania. But Sonia Gandhi prevailed and the party decided on Mahajan.

Kush Parmar, senior MLA and son of the state's first chief minister, Y S Parmar, who wants to contest from Nahan, is currently in Delhi as Virbhadra wants his loyalist Ajay Bahadur to contest from there.

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