BJP fields 6 Congress rebels in HP Assembly bypolls

Shimla: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday named six former Congress MLAs, disqualified from the House, as its candidates for the Himachal Pradesh Assembly bypolls. The BJP on Tuesday named its candidates for the Assembly bypolls in several states, including Gujarat, Sikkim, West Bengal and Karnataka. It has fielded the six MLAs from the seats they held as Congress members before their disqualification.

Sudhir Sharma has been nominated from Dharamshala, Ravi Thakur from Lahaul and Spiti, Rajinder Rana from Sujanpur, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal from Barsar, Chetanya Sharma from Gagret and Devinder Kumar Bhutto from Kutlehar.

Former HP minister and BJP leader from Lahaul and Spiti assembly constituency, Ram Lal Markanda, on Tuesday quit the party to protest the fielding of Congress rebel Ravi Thakur who had defeated him on the seat in the last assembly election.

Markanada was the agriculture and tribal development minister during the previous BJP government led by Jai Ram Thakur. He had lost the 2022 assembly elections to Thakur, who was then in the Congress, by a margin of 1542 votes. He was a frontrunner for the BJP ticket from Lahaul and Spiti. He resigned from the BJP as Congress rebel Thakur was named in the BJP list for assembly bypoll from the assembly constituency.