Himachal NCP fields Ravindra Singh Dogra for Sujanpur Assembly bypoll

NCP selected Ravindra Singh Dogra as their candidate for the Sujanpur Assembly bypoll in Himachal Pradesh, caused by the disqualification of Congress MLAs who voted for the BJP's Rajya Sabha nominee. Dogra will face former Congress MLA Rajinder Rana, now a BJP candidate, and Ranjit Singh, who recently joined Congress.

The National Congress Party (NCP) on Sunday named its Himachal Pradesh unit president Ravindra Singh Dogra as the party's candidate for the bypoll to the Sujanpur Assembly seat.

NCP chief national spokesperson Brijmohan Shrivastava said in a statement that the decision was taken at a meeting of the party's central election committee held under the chairmanship of its national executive president Praful Patel.

Dogra will contest the bypoll on the NCP's election symbol ''clock'', he added.

The Sunjanpur Assembly seat was among the six that fell vacant after the disqualification of as many rebel Congress MLAs from the Himachal Pradesh Assembly.

The disqualified MLAs, including sitting MLA of Sujanpur Rajinder Rana, had voted in favour of the BJP's Rajya Sabha nominee Harsh Mahajan on February 27.

Two days later, all six were disqualified for defying a Congress whip to be present in the Assembly and vote in favour of the government during the cut motions and budget.

These former MLAs later joined the BJP and were fielded from their respective assembly seats for the bypolls.

Ranjit Singh, who had unsuccessfully contested the 2022 Assembly polls from the seat on a BJP ticket against Rana, the then Congress candidate, left his party after it fielded the Congress rebel for the bypoll.

The old rivals will again be contesting against each other as Singh joined the Congress and was given the ticket for the bypoll.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)