LS polls: Names of sitting MPs Anurag Thakur and Suresh Kashyap figure in BJP's second list

The names of sitting MPs from Hamirpur and Shimla -- Anurag Thakur and Suresh Kashyap -- figured in the second list of the BJP candidates released on Wednesday for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur, the son of former chief minister and BJP leader P K Dhumal, is a four-time MP from Hamirpur while former BJP state president Suresh Kashyap would contest the Lok Sabha polls for the second time from Shimla seat reserved for the Scheduled Caste.There are four Lok Sabha seats in Himachal Pradesh namely Shimla, Mandi, Hamirpur and Kangra.

The names of sitting MPs from Hamirpur and Shimla -- Anurag Thakur and Suresh Kashyap -- figured in the second list of the BJP candidates released on Wednesday for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur, the son of former chief minister and BJP leader P K Dhumal, is a four-time MP from Hamirpur while former BJP state president Suresh Kashyap would contest the Lok Sabha polls for the second time from Shimla seat reserved for the Scheduled Caste.

There are four Lok Sabha seats in Himachal Pradesh namely Shimla, Mandi, Hamirpur and Kangra. The BJP is yet to announce its candidates for Mandi and Kangra seats. The Congress has not announced its candidates so far.

Former chief minister and BJP leader Jai Ram Thakur, who is presently the leader of opposition in the Vidhan Sabha, is the front runner from Mandi seat while the name of one of the six Congress rebels Sudhir Sharma, who had voted in favour of the BJP in the recently held Rajya Sabha polls, is taking rounds from the Kangra seat as per the BJP sources.

The BJP had won all the four Lok Sabha seats in 2019 with a thumping majority. BJP leader Krishan Kapoor won with a margin of 4,77,623 in Kangra, Ram Swaroop Sharma 4,05, 459 in Mandi, Anurag Thakur 3,99,572 in Hamirpur and Suresh Kashyap by 3,27,515 in Shimla.

However, the death of Ram Swaroop Sharma led to by-elections in the Mandi seat in 2021 and wife of former chief minister Virbhadra Singh and current Congress state chief Pratibha Singh won the seat by a margin of 8,766 votes in sympathy wave after the demise of her husband.