Himachal Assembly polls: Congress likely to release 1st list of candidates today

The Congress will hold a meeting of the Central Election Committee to be chaired by the party's national president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi today at 3 pm where the names of the candidates may be announced.

Shimla: Congress is likely to release the first list of candidates for Himachal Assembly elections on Saturday, sources said. Himachal Pradesh Assembly election 2022 will be held in a single phase and the polling has been scheduled to November 12.

Sources in the Congress said the party top brass will hold a meeting of the Central Election Committee to be chaired by the party's national president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi today at 3 pm on Saturday where the names of the candidates may be announced. This is the second meeting of the Central Election Committee vis a vis Himachal elections.

The first meeting was held in September wherein candidates for 40 seats were finalized. Sources said there has been a lack of clarity on some of these seats for which a panel would be formed for re-discussion. Some of the seats include Shimla Urban, Churah, Sarkaghat of Theog Chamba. The panel will be chaired by Sonia Gandhi in which Deepa Das Munshi, in-charge Rajiv Shukla, co-in-charge Gurmeet Kotli, president Pratibha Singh, Leader of Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri, campaign committee chairman Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu will participate.

Earlier, the Congress State Election Committee meeting was held in Delhi on October 7 for the selection of candidates. Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Friday said the counting of votes for Himachal Pradesh polls will take place on December 8 and elaborate arrangements have been made to ensure maximum participation of voters in the "festival of democracy".

Over 53.88 lakh voters including about 16.39 lakh new voters will cast their vote in the upcoming Assembly election according to the final electoral rolls. Out of the total voters, about 27.80 lakh are male and 27.27 lakhs are female. According to the ECI, the Sulah constituency in the State has the highest number of voters (104486) and the Lahaul and Spiti constituency has the lowest number of voters (24744).