As many as 376 candidates filed their nominations for the Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls on the last day taking the total to 630.
Himachal Pradesh will go to the polls on November 12, while the counting of the votes will be done on December 8. The state has 68 assembly seats.
A notification for the state elections was issued on October 17 and the last date for the filing of nominations was October 25.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dropped Maheshwar Singh after his son Hiteshwar filed his nomination as an independent candidate from the Banjar seat against the party's official candidate.
The BJP released the first list of 62 candidates on Wednesday. The BJP won 44 seats in the previous assembly polls while Congress won 21 seats.
In Mandi district 81 candidates filed their papers on Tuesday, followed by Kangra 72, Bilaspur 23, Kullu 19, Kinnaur 3, Chamba 34, Sirmour 35, Shimla 30, Una 29, Hamirpur 26, Solan 23, and Lahaul-Spiti one.
In Shimla, Gaurav Sharma filed his nomination as an Independent candidate, while Chaman Rakesh from Aam Aadmi Party, Rakesh Kumar Gill from BSP, and Tikender Singh Panwar filed his nomination as CPI(M) candidate.
From BJP, a 57-year-old graduate Sanjay Sood, a tea-seller by profession who has been given BJP's ticket for Shimla Urban constituency to contest the Himachal Pradesh assembly election filed his nomination on Friday.
He has been grabbing all the eyeballs in the hills ever since he was given a ticket by the BJP. Sood has been the part of BJP since 1980 and has served in Mandal, Zila, and also as a counsellor of Shimla city.
"I am thankful to BJP that they have shown faith in me as a small party worker. As you already said, the party has replaced the minister and I have been given the party's candidate from Shimla Urban. As far as you are talking about the replacement of Minister Suresh Bhardwaj ji, he is our senior leader and the party wants to win all three seats from Shimla organizational district. He is a tall leader and will win the seat and that is the only reason the party has given him to shift to another Assembly constituency and I am sure we shall win these three seats including Shimla Seat," said Sanjay Sood.
Scrutiny of papers will be held on October 27 and the last date for the withdrawal of papers will be October 29.
( With inputs from ANI )
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