Solan civic body byelection: No nomination filed on first 2 days

No nomination has been filed on the first two days for the September 29 byelection to Ward 5 of the Solan Municipal Corporation.

As per a notification issued by the State Election Commissioner, the filing of nominations will continue till September 13. The papers will be scrutinised on September 16. Candidates can withdraw their candidature on September 18, following which symbols will be allotted.

The post fell vacant after the demise of the incumbent BJP councillor Kulbhushan Gupta in March. Though the BJP was keen to announce a candidature from his family, they have been reluctant to enter the poll arena .

Both parties were yet to finalise their candidates officially, though some names were doing the rounds. In the Congress circles, the name of a nominated councillor was doing the rounds though he was yet to receive the official nod from the party. A section of the Congress leaders was also in favour of giving ticket to a new candidate though no strong candidate had been finalised till now, according to party sources.

The names are likely to be finalised by this evening as tomorrow is the last date for filing nominations.

Since victory on the seat will not alter any political equation in the civic body, little enthusiasm was being seen in both the parties for the byelection.

The mayor’s post is held by a Congress councillor, while BJP has the post of deputy mayor. The Congress has nine councillors while the BJP’s strength has been reduced to five after the demise of Kulbhushan Gupta and there was one Independent councillor.

Earlier, three byelections were proposed to be held as two Congress councillors were disqualified on June 10 for defying the party whip in the mid-term mayoral elections held in December 2023. Their disqualification was, however, stayed by the apex court few days ago, following which only one post of councillor remains vacant.