Dharamsala, Oct 15 (PTI) Undeterred by its littlerepresentation in Himachal Pradesh politics, the CommunistParty of India (Marxist) will field candidates on 30 out ofthe 68 assembly seats where elections will be held next month,a party leader has said.
The Left party is also tying up with differentorganisations to form an "anti-BJP and anti-Congress jointfront" in the hill state, senior CPI (M) leader Rakesh Singhatold PTI.
The Election Commission (EC) on October 12 announcedelections in Himachal Pradesh. The voting will take place onNovember 9 and the results will be declared on December 18.
The term of the current assembly ends on January 7, 2018.
While the main contest is considered between theincumbent Congress and the Opposition BJP, the CPI(M), whichhas so far had a minuscule representation in the legislativeassembly, is keen on putting up a fight.
The state unit of the CPI(M) had on October 9 released alist of 14 candidates for the elections. The list includednames of the former mayor of Shimla Municipal CorporationSanjay Chauhan and Singha, a former MLA.
The party has also fielded Kuldeep Singh Tanwar fromKusumti Assembly seat, Vivek Kashyap from Rampur, LokendraKumar from Ani, Vishwanath Sharma from Nahan, Munish Sharmafrom Sarkaghat, Bhupinder Singh from Dharampur, KunalBharadwaj from Jogindernagar and Ajay Bhatti from Solan.
Other candidates chosen by the CPI(M) included AnilMankotia from Hamirpur Assembly seat, Joginder Kumar fromSujanpur, Sudarshan from Lahaul and Spiti and Bittoo Vermafrom Palampur.
The Left party, which has a considerable hold in theHimachal Pradesh University and in Shimla, has had very littlepresence in the state legislative assembly since the birth ofthe present Himachal Pradesh after inclusion of hilly areas ofPunjab in it in 1966.
The election of two CPI MLAs -- Paras Ram from Jaswan(Kangra) and Bansi Ram from Baijnath (Kangra) -- in 1967 wasthe highest presence of the Left in the state assembly.
Later, K K Koushal from Kotkehloor in 1990 and Singha got anentry into the assembly from Shimla in 1993. But since then noLeft leader got elected to the Assembly.
The rough patch continued till the Shimla MunicipalCorporation elections in 2012, when the Left marked itspresence with the election of Sanjay Chouhan as the mayor andTikeder Kanwar as the deputy mayor.
But the CPI(M)'s success was short-lived. In the civicbody polls this June, first-time councillor Kusum Sadret,backed by the BJP, was elected as the new mayor of Shimla,while Rakesh Kumar, who won as an Independent candidate andlater joined the saffron party, was elected the deputy mayor.
Talking to PTI over the phone, an upbeat Singha said hehas launched his campaign from Theog assembly seat, which iscurrently represented by Congress leader and state Irrigationand Public Health Minister Vidya Stokes.
Citing media reports which suggested that Virbhadra Singhmay fight from Theog seat if Stokes (89) hangs up herpolitician's boots, Singha said he was keen on contestingagainst the chief minister.
Earlier this year, Virbhadra Singh, who has been activein electoral politics since 1962 and has been elected to LokSabha five times and state assembly eight times, sprang asurprise by offering his Assembly seat –- Shimla (Rural) -- tohis son Vikramaditya.
The six-time chief minister had said he would himselflike to contest from a seat which the Congress has never won.
PTI COR KISKIS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.