The Central Election Committee of the Bharatiya Janata Party has announced candidates for the by-elections to 6 assembly seats of Himachal Pradesh. All the 6 rebel MLAs who recently left Congress and joined BJP have been made candidates for the assembly by-elections. They include Sudhir Sharma from Dharamshala, Ravi Thakur from Lahaul Spiti, Rajinder Rana from Sujanpur, Indradutt Lakhanpal from Badsar, Chaitanya Sharma from Gagret and Devendra Kumar Bhutto from Kutlahar. It is noteworthy that these MLAs were disqualified by the State Assembly Speaker for not being present in the House at the time of passing the budget during the budget session.

Meanwhile, senior BJP leader and former minister Ramlal Markanda raised objection to Ravi Thakur being declared a BJP candidate from Lahaul Spiti and hinted at contesting the elections from Congress.