Congress played safe as it cleared the tested and tried names in the first list for 46 seats for the 68 Assembly constituencies for the upcoming Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly polls on Monday, except for seven seats where new faces have been fielded.

The list included 19 sitting MLAs while there are just three women so far.

The new faces included former state president Kuldeep Singh Rathore from Theog, state general secretary Rajneesh Kimta from Chopal, Vivek Kumar from Jhanduta, Yashwant Singh Khanna from Churah, former BJP state president Khimi Ram from Banjar, Dayal Pyari from Pachhad, and former minister GS Bali’s son RS Bali from Nagrota.

No announcement has been made from Kangra and Nalagarh as the party’s sitting MLAs-Pawan Kajal and Lakhwinder Rana- have already defected to the BJP. From Kinnaur (ST) seat, sitting MLA Jagat Singh Negi’s name is yet to be cleared as he is facing opposition from Youth Congress leader Nigam Bhandari.

The prominent names in the first list included CLP leader Mukesh Agnihotri from Haroli, Asha Kumari from Dalhousie, Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu from Nadaun and Kaul Singh Thakur from Darang.

Former CM Virbhadra Singh’s son Vikramditya Singh will contest for the second time from Shimla Rural.

Chet Ram Thakur has again pitted against Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur.

Interestingly, Kaul Singh Thakur’s daughter Champa Thakur would contest again from Mandi Sadar. Last time, she had lost to Sukh Ram’s son Anil Sharma.

Maximum names in the first list are loyalists of Virbhadra Singh.

For remaining seats, there are multiple contenders and still deliberations are underway.

The prominent among these included Shimla, Bharmour, Indora, Dehra, Jaisinghpur, Sullah, Kangra, Manali, Anni, Karsog, Nachan, Jogindernagar, Dharampur, Sarkaghat, Hamirpur, Chintpurni, Gagret, Kutlehar, Bilaspur, Nalagarh, and Paonta Sahib.

New Delhi, Oct 19: India saw a single day rise of 1,946 infections, taking the tally of COVID-19 cases to 4,46,34,376, while the active cases declined to 25,968, according to government data updated on Wednesday.
The death toll climbed to 5,28,923 with 10 fatalities, which include six deaths reconciled by Kerala, the data updated by the the Union health ministry at 8 am stated.
The active cases comprise 0.06 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has increased to 98.76 per cent, it said.
There has been a decrease of 481 cases in the active caseload in 24 hours.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.75 per cent, while the weekly positivity rate was 1.01 per cent, the health ministry said.
The number of recoveries climbed to 4,40,79,485, while the case fatality rate was 1.19 per cent.
According to the ministry, 219.41 crore doses of vaccines have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive.
India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.
India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4, three crore on June 23 last year and four crore on January 25. (Agencies)

Kedarnath, Oct 18: Six people, including two pilots, were killed after a helicopter carrying the pilgrims crashed near Kedarnath in Uttarakhand today, officials have said.
The helicopter crashed near Garu Chatti, they said, adding that six bodies have been recovered so far and a rescue operation is underway.
The helicopter caught fire briefly after taking off from Kedarnath.

NEW DELHI, Oct 18: Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) founder Yasin Malik, who is lodged in Tihar Prisons, is likely to appear before a Special TADA Court in-person for the cross-examination of persecution witnesses in two cases – the killing of four Indian Air Force (IAF) officers and the abduction of Rubaiyya Sayeed.
The IAF officials’ case will be listed before the Jammu special court on October 19, and the Rubaiyya Sayeed case on October 20.
Additional advocate general Monika Kohli, who is the public prosecutor in the two high-profile cases, said, “After Malik sought physical appearance before the Special TADA Court, it issued production warrants to Tihar Prison authorities directing them to produce him in court in connection to the two cases in Jammu.”
“Whether he is produced before court is yet to be seen. So far, we do not have any intimation from the prison authorities in Tihar. The court will start hearing cases from 10 am or 10.30 am,” added Kohli.
On September 21, a special TADA Court had issued production warrants to ensure physical presence of Malik before the court on October 19 and 20 to cross-examine prosecution witnesses and Rubaiyya Sayeed.
56-year-old Sayeed, who had been kidnapped in December 1989 to secure the release of five militants, had identified Malik and three others in the abduction case. However, on August 23, a special TADA Court had issued bailable warrants against Sayeed after she had failed to appear before court in-person. (Agencies)