Cong nominee Viplove Thakur files nomination for RS polls

Congress nominee for the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Himachal Pradesh Viplove Thakur today filed his nomination papers and was all set to be elected unopposed.
No other candidate has filed nominations from the state for the February 7 polls.
Two sets of nominations were filed, and Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, Vidya Stokes, Mukesh Agnihotri, Asha Kumari and other prominent MLAs were among the proposers.
The scrutiny of papers would take place tomorrow and she would be declared elected on January 31 after the last date of withdrawal of nominations.
The seat is falling vacant in April this year after the expiry of term of BJP member Shanta Kumar.

After the filing of nominations, the Chief Minister welcomed the decision of the Congress high command, and said that it was supported by all members of the state unit.

Replying to a question, Singh trashed pre-poll surveys predicting victory of the BJP as "manipulated and far from truth". He said he was not sure whether the people engaged in the surveys had actually visited the constituencies, and even if they had done so it seems that they might have only interacted with a very few persons which were not enough to judge the mindset of the voters.
On a related question, he said such surveys should be banned by the Election Commission as there is no transparency in the process and scope for manipulation and misuse of money power always remains.

Thakur is the only woman from Himachal to get elected twice to the Rajya Sabha, while Roshan Lal was the only leader from the state to be elected to the Upper House thrice in a row.