NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday approved party tickets to all the 20 sitting MLAs in Himachal Pradesh and is learnt to have finalised the names of another 15 candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in the state, sources said.
The decision to field all party MLAs was taken at a meeting of the party's Central Election Committee headed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
The meeting was held at Gandhi's 10, Janpath residence, where senior leaders AK Antony, Ambika Soni, K C Venugopal, Girija Vyas, Mukul Wasnik, M Veerappa Moily and Mohsina Kidwai were present.
AICC in-charge for Himachal Pradesh Rajeev Shukla, Himachal state unit president Pratibha Singh and Congress Legislature Party leader Mukesh Agnihotri were also present.
Former prime minister Manmohan Singh and former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi were not present in the meeting.
Some of the names approved at the meeting include Vikramaditya Singh from Shimla Rural and Mukesh Agnihotri from Haroli.
Singh is the son of former chief minister Virbhadra Singh. Virbhadra Singh's wife Pratibha Singh, who is the party MP from Mandi, is unlikely to contest, the sources said.
Among other names approved at the CEC meeting are senior party leader and former state unit chief Kaul Singh Thakur from Dorang in Mandi district, former PCC chief Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu from Nadaun, and Prakash Chaudhary from Balh in Mandi district.
Former BJP state president Khimi Ram, who switched over to the Congress, has also been cleared for contesting from Banjar and another former BJP leader, Dyal Piyari, is likely to be fielded from Sirmaur.
The election to the 68-member Himachal Pradesh Assembly is due later this year and the Congress is seeking to wrest power from the BJP in the hill state.