Himachal Assembly Election 2017: Heavyweights In The Fray

Shimla: Himachal Pradesh is gearing up for an intense battle with traditional rivals BJP and Congress locking horns in all 68 constituencies of the state.

338 candidates will try their luck in the assembly election scheduled for November 9. Along with Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, 10 ministers, eight Chief Parliamentary secretaries have thrown their hat in the ring.

Virbhadra Singh has vacated Shimla Rural constituency for his son, Vikramaditya. He will instead contest from Arki Assembly seat in Solan district. BJP has fielded Pramod Verma against Vikramaditya Singh in the prestigious Shimla Rural constituency.

BJP's chief ministerial face, Prem Kumar Dhumal will contest from Sujanpur instead of Hamirpur, which he represents in the outgoing Assembly. Mr Dhumal has been Chief Minister of the state twice.

Anil Sharma, who quit Congress recently to join the BJP, has been fielded from Mandi.

While Speaker BBL Butail will not contest this time, his son Ashish Kumar has been named as Congress candidate from Palampur. Mr Kumar will contest against BJP's Indu Gauswamy, who is the first woman candidate ever fielded by any party in Palampur. 

At present, the Congress and the BJP have 35 and 28 MLAs respectively in the 68-member House besides four independents while one seat is vacant.

The Congress and the BJP are returning to power alternately since 1985. 

While the Congress is contesting elections under the leadership of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, BJP has declared former chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal as its Chief Ministerial face.

There are 50,25.941 voters in the state including 25,31,321 men and 24,57,032 women.