In the election counting for Himachal Pradesh elections, Congress is seen leading on 38 seats while the BJP is seen ahead on 27 seats. Three independent candidates who left the BJP and turned rebel are leading in their constituencies, according to official trends.
Now that Congress is in charge, they may have a new problem to deal with. That is who are they going to choose as the CM face. Even during the campaign, the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, taunted the Congress, saying that the Congress has at least eight contenders for the position of chief minister.
Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, Mukesh Agnihotri, and Pratibha Singh are considered the top contenders to the CM's in Himachal.
Sukhwinder Singh
Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, the chairman of the Congress' campaign committee for the Himachal Pradesh Assembly election in 2022, is thought to be a potential candidate to become the subsequent HP CM. He is rumored to be Rahul Gandhi's close confidant and is thought to be an adversary of the Virbhadra Singh clan. Sukhu is running for the Himachal Assembly in the 2022 election from Nadaun.
In 2003 and 2004, Sukhu won the elections in the Nadaun constituency. In the 2012 elections for the state assembly, BJP candidate Vijay Agnihotri beat Sukhu. Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, a candidate for the Congress party, won the Nadaun seat in the 2017 Himachal Pradesh Assembly Election with 30980 votes. Vijay Agnihotri, a BJP candidate, lost to him by a margin of 2349 votes.
Mukesh Agnihotri
Journalist-turned-politician Agnihotri is contesting for the fifth time, after winning four times in a row.
It is a triangular contest in Haroli among the Congress, the BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party, which has fielded Ravinder Pal Singh Mann, a new entrant in the state elections. Naresh Kumar (BSP) and Ashwani Kumar Rana (Rashtriya Devbhui Party) are also in the fray from the seat.
Since 2003, Mukesh Agnihotri has held the position of MLA. This time, he is up against Ravinder Pal Singh Mann of the AAP and Ram Kumar of the BJP. The BSP's Naresh Kumar is also competing.
Haroli was one of 21 seats won by the Congress in the 2017 election after Agnihotri defeated Ram Kumar Sharma of the BJP by a margin of 7,377 votes. Agnihotri received 35,095 votes overall, while Ram Kumar received 27,718. Ravinder Mann, an independent, received 833 votes to take third place.
His candidature could be supported by Prathiba Singh.
Pratibha Singh
Pratibha Singh is a member of parliament for the Lok Sabha and is the wife of former chief minister Virbhadra Singh. Pratibha Singh did not run for office in the Himachal Pradesh election of 2022 (HP election 2022), but given that the Congress vehemently emphasised Virbhadra Singh's legacy during the campaign for Himachal election of 2022, she may be a contender.
