Senior BJP leader Rajiv Bindal, a five-time MLA, former minister and Himachal Pradesh BJP president, is all set to get re-elected unopposed as he is the lone candidate for the post. The election process for the new Himachal BJP president started at 12 am on Monday in the state BJP office. Three sets of nomination papers with Bindals name were filed by the Leader of Opposition and the BJP legislature party Jai Ram Thakur, former Union minister Anurag Thakur and all BJP MPs and former state president and former minister Govind Thakur and other state office bearers, Election officer Rajiv Bhardwaj said on Monday. The stage is also set for unanimous elections of eight National Council members as an equal number of nominations have been filed by former minister Govind Thakur, party general secretaries Bihari Lal Sharma, Trilok Kapoor, Pawan Kajal, Rashmi Dhar Sood, Payal Vaidya, Dr Rajiv Saizal and Sanjeev Katwal. Bindal remained MLA from 2002 to 2022, winning three Assembly elections from Solan and two from Nahan, after the Solan constituency was reserved for Scheduled Castes and also served as the health and family welfare minister in the government headed by Prem Kumar Dhumal from 2007 to 2012. He was unanimously elected as the Speaker of 13th Vidhan Sabha on January 10, 2018, and held the post till January 2020 and took over as the state BJP chief for a brief stint and was again appointed the partys president in April 2023. His new tenure as Himachal BJP chief would start from July 1 when Union Minister Jitendra Singh would declare him elected.  Jai Ram Thakur, Anurag Thakur, Lok Sabha members Suresh Kashyap, Kangna Ranaut and Rajiv Bharadwaj and Rajya Sabha members Indu Goswami, Sikender Kumar and Harsh Mahajan were elected ex-officio members of the National Council.

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