 "Jammu: School students with their faces and hands painted with words to encourage people to vote, pose for photographs ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, in Jammu, Thursday, April 18, 2024. (PTI Photo)")
Thirty-seven candidates will battle it out for Himachal Pradesh's four Lok Sabha seats while 25 are in the fray for the assembly bypolls in six seats.
Friday was the last day to withdraw nominations. Polling for the four Lok Sabha seats and the bypolls to the six assembly constituencies will be held on June 1.
The BJP, Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have fielded candidates from all four Lok Sabha seats but the main contest is between the ruling and the opposition parties.
Ten candidates are in the fray in Mandi, where actor Kangana Ranaut is taking on Vikramaditya Singh.
Singh's mother Pratibha Singh is the outgoing MP from the seat.
In Kangra, which is also being contested by 10 candidates, senior Congress leader and former Union minister Anand Sharma is taking on the BJP's Rajiv Bharadwaj.
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The Congress has fielded Kasauli MLA Vinod Sultanpuri against incumbent MP Suresh Kashyap of the BJP in Shimla, where five candidates are in the fray.
In Hamirpur, Union Minister Anurag Thakur will look to defend his bastion against the Congress' Satpal Raizada.
A total 12 candidates are contesting from the seat.
In the bypolls in Dharamsala and Lahaul & Spiti, BJP rebels Rakesh Chowdhary and Ram Lal Markanda have entered the fray as Independent candidates.
The six assembly seats fell vacant after Congress MLAs who abstained from voting on the cut motion and finance bill (Budget) in the assembly were disqualified for defying a party whip to be present in the House and vote in favour of the government.
All six Congress ex-MLAs later joined the BJP and were fielded by the saffron party from their former seats.
Sudhir Sharma will take on former mayor Devinder Jaggi of the Congress in Dharamsala while Ravi Thakur is facing Zila Parishad Chairperson Anuradha Rana of the grand old party in Lahaul & Spiti.
Rajinder Rana is contesting from Sujanpur on a BJP ticket against the Congress' Ranjeet Singh. In the 2022 assembly elections, Singh -- who contested on a BJP ticket -- lost to Rana. He recently joined the Congress.
Devinder Kumar Bhutto, contesting on a BJP ticket from Kutlehar, is facing the Congress' Vivek Sharma.
Chaitanya Sharma is pitted against BJP rebel Rakesh Kalia, who is contesting on a Congress ticket in Gagret.
Inder Dutt Lakhanpal is in the fray for the BJP in Badsar against the Congress' Subhash Chand.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
