The Congress party on Saturday announced Himachal Pradesh public works minister Vikramaditya Singh and Kasauli MLA Vinod Sultanpuri as its candidates from the Mandi and Shimla Lok Sabha seats, respectively. The party, however, said that more deliberations were needed to finalise its picks for the remaining two seats, Kangra and Hamirpur.

The party’s central election committee met on Friday in New Delhi with Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge as the chairperson to deicide on the four candidates.

Former state education minister Asha Kumari was being seen as a front runner from Kangra and former Una MLA Satpal Raizada is in the running from Hamirpur.

Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has announced the names of the incumbent MP Suresh Kashyap for Shimla and Union minister Anurag Thakur from the Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat list its third list on March 14. The BJP later announced actor-turned-politician Kangana Ranuat from Mandi and Rajiv Bhardwaj from Kangra in its fourth list.

On expected lines, the Congress fielded public works minister Vikramaditya Singh from the Mandi seat.

The Shimla rural MLA and son of six-time HP chief minister Virbhadra Singh, Vikramaditya is the scion of erstwhile princely state of Rampur Bushahr.

He is known for fierce speeches and a staunch devout. Born on October 17,1989 in Shimla, he holds a post graduate degree in History from St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi. He remained the president of the Himachal Pradesh Youth Congress from 2013 to 2018 and made his electoral debut in 2017, when he was elected to the assembly from his father’s seat, Shimla Rural. He was re-elected in 2022.

Son of six-time MP is Shimla pick

Born on February 3, 1982, at Sultanpur in Solan district to Satya Devi Sultanpur and former MP Krishan Dutt Sultanpuri, Vinod was educated at the Lawrence School in Sanawar. He is a post graduated and holds a law degree from the Indian Law Society’s, Law College in Pune.

He remained the president of youth Congress in Solan district from 2006 to 2008; the national Co-ordinator, AAKS from 2008 to 2009 and national secretary of youth Congress from 2009 to 2011. He was elected to the Vidhan Sabha in 2022 for the first time. Before that, he had lost two assembly elections with a thin margin to BJP’s Rajiv Sezal. Vinod’s father, KD Sultanpuri, was elected to the Lok Sabha member from Shimla parliamentary seat in 1980, 1984, 1989, 1991, 1996 and 1998 and was a close associate of former President Ram Nath Kovind.