Himachal Pradesh Assembly Election 2017: Data shows Congress is fielding most number of rich candidates
The most number of rich candidates who will be contesting the 2017 Himachal Pradesh polls will be from the Congress party, data from the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) reveals.
According to the data, the most number of rich candidates who will be contesting the polls belong to the Congress party which has 59 rich candidates, with the BJP coming in second with 47 rich candidates. Among the rest of the parties, the VS has 6 rich candidates, the CPM has 3 rich candidates and the Rashtriya Azad Manch has 2 rich candidates.
The Bahujan Mukti Party, the CPI, Swabhiman Party, Lok Gathbandhan Party and the Rashtravadi Pratap Sena all have 1 rich candidate. The number of independent rich candidates who will be contesting the 2017 Himachal polls number to 36. In all, a total of 158 rich candidates are contesting the 2017 Himachal Pradesh polls.
According to data from the Association for Democratic Reforms, Balvir Singh Verma from the BJP, who will contest the election from Chopal, has around Rs 90 crore as the value of the total number of his assets. Vikramaditya Singh, who will contest the election from Shimla Rural, holds assets worth Rs 84 crore. Vikramaditya Singh is the son of six-time Congress Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.
Himachal Pradesh will go to elections on November 9. The Himachal polls will be a closely-fought battle between the two major national parties, the BJP and the Congress.
Apart from Virbhadra Singh, who has been the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh six times, Prem Kumar Dhumal from the BJP has been Chief Minister of the state twice.
He will also lead the BJP in Himachal Pradesh. Virbhadra Singh will be contesting the Himachal election from the constituency of Akri, as he handed over the Shimla rural seat to his son, Vikramaditya.
Virbhadra Singh will be the Congress' Chief Ministerial candidate.
The results of the 2017 Himachal Pradesh elections will be announced on December 18.