Himachal Vikas Congress, was a regional political party in Himachal Pradesh, India.
Virbhadra Singh was an Indian politician who served 6 terms and 21 years as the 4th Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh. A leader of the Indian National Congress party, he was elected 9 times as a Member of Legislative Assembly to the Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha and 5 times as Member of Parliament to the Lok Sabha. Virbhadra Singh was popularly known by the honorific Raja Sahib. Singh holds the distinction of being the longest serving Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, holding the office from 1983 to 1990, from 1993 to 1998, from 2003 to 2007 and finally from 2012 to 2017, when he was succeeded by the BJP's Jai Ram Thakur. He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1962, 1967, 1971, 1980 and 2009. Singh served as a Union Minister in the governments of Indira Gandhi and Manmohan Singh. At the time of his demise, he was serving as an MLA from Arki constituency.
Mandi Lok Sabha constituency is one of the four Lok Sabha (parliamentary) constituencies in Himachal Pradesh state in northern India represented by Kangana Ranaut, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party since 2024.
Although India is a parliamentary democracy, the country's politics has become dynastic or with high level of nepotism, possibly due to the absence of party organizations, independent civil-society associations which mobilize support for a party, or centralized financing of elections. The dynastic phenomenon is present at the national, state, regional, and district level. The Nehru–Gandhi family has produced three Indian prime ministers, and family members have largely led the Congress party since 1978. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also has several dynastic leaders. In addition to the major national parties, other national and regional parties such as Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Shiromani Akali Dal, Shiv Sena, Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Janata Dal Secular, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Kerala Congress, Jammu & Kashmir National Conference, Indian Union Muslim League, AIMIM, and the Nationalist Congress Party are all dominated by families, mostly those of the party founders.
Shanta Kumar Sharma is an Indian politician who was the 3rd Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh and a Union Minister in the Government of India. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He was elected to the 9th Lok Sabha from Kangra constituency in 1989. He was re-elected to the Lok Sabha in 1998, 1999 and 2014 from the same constituency. He has written a number of books. He is the first and only person not of a Rajput background who has served as the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh.
Prem Kumar Dhumal is an Indian politician who has twice served as the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, from March 1998 to March 2003 and again from 1 January 2008 to 25 December 2012. He was the Bharatiya Janata Party's Chief Ministerial candidate for the 2017 Himachal Assembly Election, in which he lost his seat.
Pandit Sukh Ram was an Indian politician who served as the Minister of Communications and Information Technology from 1993 to 1996. He was a member of Lok Sabha from the Mandi constituency of Himachal Pradesh. He won the Vidhan Sabha elections five times and the Lok Sabha elections three times. He is the father of politician Anil Sharma and grandfather of actor Aayush Sharma. In 2011 he was sentenced to 5 years in jail for corruption when he was Communications Minister in 1996.
Kaul Singh Thakur was the Health and Family Welfare minister in Himachal Pradesh Cabinet until December, 2017. He has also served as the Himachal Pradesh Congress President two times.
Gurmukh Singh Bali was a Member of the Legislative Assembly from Nagrota Bagwan, Himachal Pradesh, India. He was born on 27 July 1954 at Kangra. He had a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering. He got married on 20 June 1977. He was the Transport, Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs and Technical Education Minister in Himachal Pradesh Cabinet.
Viplove Thakur is an Indian politician. A senior leader of the Indian National Congress party, she has been a member of the Parliament of India. Thakur has represented Himachal Pradesh in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament since April, 2006. She retired from the Upper House in April, 2020.
Members of the 15th Lok Sabha were elected during the 2009 general election in India. It was dissolved on 18 May 2014 by President Pranab Mukherjee.
Jai Ram Thakur is an Indian politician, and was the Chief Minister of the state of Himachal Pradesh from 2017 to 2022. He is serving his sixth term as MLA in the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly, winning continuously since 1998 and has previously served as a Cabinet Minister in the Bharatiya Janata Party Government of Himachal Pradesh. Thakur was the Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj from 2009 to 2012. He is serving as Leader of opposition in current legislative assembly of the state. He is elected to Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly from Seraj Assembly constituency of Mandi district. He won his first election in the year 1998 from now delimited constituency of Chachiot (Seraj).
Chaudhary Birender Singh Sheokand is a senior Indian political leader and a well-known face in Indian Politics. He lately served as Minister of Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Sanitation & Drinking Water from 2014 to 2016 and later as the Union Minister of Steel from 2016 to 2019 in the Narendra Modi led NDA Government in India.
Mandi Assembly constituency is one of the 68 constituencies of the Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha. This constituency is not reserved for the candidates belonging to Scheduled castes or Scheduled Tribes.
Jagat Prakash Nadda is an Indian lawyer and politician who is serving as the 34th Minister of Health, 25th Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers since 2024 and 11th President of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2020 and the member of the Rajya Sabha representing Gujarat since 2024. A key decision maker of the BJP, he is a close aide to Narendra Modi. He was the BJP's working president from 2019 to 2020. Nadda was also the Minister of Health and Family Welfare in the first Modi ministry from 2014 to 2019 and Parliamentary Board Secretary of Bharatiya Janata Party. Nadda is the Minister of Health and Family Welfare and Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers in the third Modi ministry.
Khimi Ram Sharma is an Indian politician from the federating unit of Himachal Pradesh of the state of India. He started his career as a Government school teacher serving in different sub divisions in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh. Before he has also worked as a labourer in Public Works Department in Kullu district. He has been elected onto dignified posts since he first contested his election as Zila parishad chairman in Kullu district. He served as MLA from Banjar assembly constituency of Kullu district twice since 2003 to 2012. He has also served as deputy speaker of Vidhan Sabha of Himachal Pradesh in 2007 and later he was elected as BJP chief of Himachal Pradesh. In 2011 he was in state cabinet as forest minister.
The key political players in Himachal Pradesh state in north-west India are the Indian National Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party.
Mahender Singh is an Indian politician. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Singh was a member of the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly from the Dharampur constituency in Mandi district. He holds the Irrigation and public health, Horticulture and Sainik welfare portfolios.
Aayush Sharma is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films. He made his film debut with brother-in-law Salman Khan's production Loveyatri (2018) and Antim: The Final Truth (2021), in which he starred alongside Khan.
Pandit Sant Ram , commonly known as simply Sant Ram, was an Indian politician. He was elected to the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly from Baijnath constituency first in the 1972 Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly election as a member of the Indian National Congress. Sant Ram was re-elected in the 1977, 1982, 1985, 1993, and 1998 legislative elections. He also served as a senior cabinet minister in the Himachal Pradesh Government under Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, and as president of the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee. Shri Sant Ram died on 30 June 1998. Shri Dulo Ram was elected from Baijnath in the following by-election. His son, Sudhir Sharma, was born in 1972 and has served as both a minister in the Himachal Pradesh government, and as the MLA for Dharamshala Assembly constituency. Sharma is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Indian