Ahead of the Himachal Assembly polls, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president JP Nadda will release the party’s ‘vision document’ (manifesto) for the state on Friday. The elections to the 68-member assembly is scheduled for November 12 (Saturday).Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address at least two public meetings each on November 5 and 9. Meanwhile, days ahead of Assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh, the ruling BJP on Monday suspended five of its rebel leaders from the primary membership of the party for contesting the election as Independents.
Those suspended include former MLAs- Tejwant Singh Negi (Kinnaur), Kishori Lal (Anni), Manohar Dhiman (Indora), K L Thakur (Nalagarh)- and the BJP's Himachal unit vice-president Kripal Parmar.All these leaders are contesting the polls as Independents from their respective constituencies after the BJP denied ticket to them.Parmar, a former Rajya Sabha MP, is contesting as an Independent from Fatehpur constituency. "BJP's state unit president Suresh Kashyap has suspended the workers from the primary membership of the party for six years for contesting the elections as Independents against the party's official candidate," the statement reads.Earlier, more than a dozen BJP leaders had announced that they would be contesting as Independents in the Assembly elections scheduled to be held on November 12.