Shimla, June 18 (IANS): The Congress on Tuesday fielded Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Sukhu’s wife Kamlesh Thakur as its nominee for the July 10 Assembly bypoll in Dehra in Kangra district.

A political greenhorn, Kamlesh Thakur will contest against BJP nominee and two-time legislator Hoshiyar Singh, who won the seat as an Independent candidate in 2022.

Incidentally, Chief Minister Sukhu is a four-time sitting MLA from Nadaun in the adjacent Hamirpur district located close to Dehra.

Bypolls will be held in three Assembly seats in Himachal on July 10 -- Dehra, Hamirpur, and Nalagarh -- and the results will be announced on July 13.

The BJP has fielded K.L. Thakur from Nalagarh and Ashish Sharma from Hamirpur, where they will take on Congress' Hardeep Bawa and Pushpendra Verma, respectively.

Both Thakur and Sharma won the seats as Independent candidates in 2022, before joining the BJP earlier this year.

The duo, along with Hoshiyar Singh, resigned from their Assembly posts in March and joined the BJP. The bypolls were necessitated after the Speaker accepted their resignations on June 4.