Shimla: The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party have announced their candidates for the upcoming municipal corporation elections in Mandi, Palampur, Dharamshala, and Solan. The development comes as nominations continued to be filed for the second day on Thursday.
Congress Candidates for Mandi
For the Mandi civic polls, the Congress party released its first list, fielding eight candidates and giving preference to women. The candidates include Rekha (Purani Mandi), Neelam Sharma (Paddal), Rajni Chandra (Mangwain), Geetanjali Sharma (Thanehra), Neem Dashi (Palace 1), Sushma Kumari (Suhara), Gaurav Sharma (Samkhetar), and Dhan Dev (Nehna).
Congress Candidates for Palampur
The Congress list for the Palampur seats includes Inder Pal, Radha Sood, Ranjeet Kaur, Shailja Chauhan, Ravinder Kumar, Kavita Minhas, Savita Rathore, Ritesh Thakur, Kamlesh Kumari, Neelam Malik, Promila Devi, Nisha Devi, Archna, Anita Devi, and Raj Kumar.
BJP Candidates for Dharamshala and Solan
The BJP has fielded the following candidates for the Dharamshala Municipal Corporation polls: Rekha Devi, Shamsher Nehria, Asha Devi, Neha Sangal, Aruna Kumari, Karishma, Ashu, Prerna Guleria, Raj Chaudhary, Amit Bharadwaj, Anish Kumar, Meena Kumari, Harsh Oberoi, Shekhar Anand, Praveen Parkash, Anupam Katoch, and Vishal Jamwal.
For the Solan Municipal Corporation, the BJP candidates are Neelam Kumari, Sushma Sharma, Piyush Garg, Rohit Bharadwaj, Priyanka, Rekha Sahini, Surender Kumar, Salita Sharma, Virender Sood, Sarita Thakur, Priyanka Aggarwal, Meera Anand, Meena Kumari, Abhishek Thakur, Seema Devi, and Taruna Sharma. On Wednesday, the saffron party had announced 17 candidates for the elections to 15 seats in Mandi and two in Palampur.
Election Schedule
According to the election schedule, nomination papers can be filed on April 29, 30, and May 2. Polling will be held on May 17 from 7 am to 3 pm. Counting of votes for nagar panchayats and municipal councils will begin on May 17, while counting for municipal corporations will take place on May 31 from 9 am onwards.
Rural Polls Schedule Announced
Mandi district election officer and deputy commissioner Apoorv Devgan on Thursday announced the election schedule for the members of zila parishad and various panchayat samitis. The DC informed that nomination papers can be filed on May 7, 8, and 11 between 11 am and 3 pm. The scrutiny of nomination papers will take place on May 12, while the process of withdrawal of nominations will be completed on May 14 and 15. Voting in the panchayats falling under the zila parishad will be conducted on May 26, 28, and 30. The counting of votes for all panchayat samitis will be conducted on May 31 at designated locations, said the DC.
