Shimla, Oct 8 : Two women are hoping to make it a family affair by contesting for two Himachal Pradesh assembly seats that were vacated by their husbands who are now Lok Sabha MPs.

Pratibha Singh, wife of former Congress Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, is eyeing the ticket for the Rohru seat whereas Sudha Sushant, wife of the Bharatiya Janata Party's
(BJP) Rajan Sushant, is hoping to contest from Jawali.

Byelections to both the seats will take place Nov 7.

Rohru and Jawali fell vacant after the respective legislators from there - Virbhadra Singh and Rajan Sushant - contested and won the Lok Sabha elections in May.

The BJP won three of the four Lok Sabha seats from the state in the general election. The Congress, which won one seat, that too with a narrow margin, is therefore taking no chances this time.

For the Congress, much is at stake in Rohru, which has been the stronghold of Virbhadra Singh since 1983. He has won all the seven elections he contested from there with huge margins.

Virbhadra Singh, who has been chief minister five times and is currently union steel minister, has been extensively touring the Rohru constituency ahead of the byelection.

"It's for the party national leadership to decide who will be the candidate for the byelection. I am touring the state to strengthen the party and rejuvenate the party cadre," Virbhadra Singh told IANS on phone.

He has clearly indicated that his better half, Pratibha Singh, a former MP from Mandi, is likely to run for the Congress from Rohru.

"There is no dispute over the selection of the candidate for Rohru. The local units have recommended the name of Pratibha Singh. If she gets the ticket, she will contest. But I will campaign in both Rohru and Jawali," he said.

The BJP is planning to field in Rohru Khushi Ram Balnatah, who has lost four assembly elections in a row to Virbhadra Singh.

In the next assembly elections, Rohru will be a reserved seat as per delimitation guidelines.

In Jawali, Rajan Sushant's wife Sudha Sushant has started campaigning. The other BJP contenders for the seat include Madan Sharma, the elder brother of Sushant.

While Rajan Sushant says his wife will most certainly be nominated, other BJP leaders are not so sure.

Rajan Sushant had won this assembly seat in 2007 by a margin of 5,100 votes from Congress candidate Sujan Singh Pathania. The Congress is likely to field Pathania again for this seat.

State Congress chief Kaul Singh Thakur said: "No name has been finalised so far. It will take some more time."

The ruling BJP is confident of retaining Jawali and wresting Rohru.

"We will retain Jawali and wrest the Rohru assembly seat. Our government's achievements in the past 21 months would enable us to make a clean sweep once again," he said.

Nominations for the two seats will begin Oct 14.

In the 2007 elections to the 68-member assembly, the BJP won 41 seats, the Congress 23, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) one and independents three seats. The BSP legislator later joined the BJP. (IANS)