BJP drops 10 sitting MLAS in U’khand list
DEHRADUN: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday dropped 10 sitting MLAS and gave tickets to all 11 ministers in the first list of candidates for the assembly elections in Uttarakhand.
Union minister and BJP election in-charge for Uttarakhand, Pralhad Joshi, released the list of 59 candidates at the party’s national headquarters in Delhi on Thursday. The state assembly comprises 70 seats.
Included in the first list are all high profile leaders of the state unit -- chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami from Khatima, state BJP chief Madan Kaushik from Haridwar, Dhan Singh Rawat from Srinagar, Subodh Uniyal from Narendra Nagar, Ganesh Joshi from Mussoorie, Swami Yatishwaranand from Haridwar (rural), Satpal Maharaj from Chaubattkhal, Bishan Singh Chuphal from Didihat, Rekha Arya from Someshwar,
Banshidhar Bhagat from Kaladhungi and Arvind Pandey from Gadarpur.
The sitting MLAS who were denied tickets include Rajkumar from Purola in Uttarkashi district, who has been replaced by Durgeshwar Lal who got the ticket hours after joining the party. Rajkumar had joined the BJP from Congress last year.
Similarly, Kunwar Pranav Singh Champion from Haridwar’s Khanpur constituency has been replaced by his wife Kunwarani Devyani. Champion has been in controversy on several occasions during his tenure in the government.
One of the sitting MLAS and deputy speaker of state legislative assembly Raghunath Singh Chauhan who was denied ticket this time by the party leadership while speaking on the development said he “respects party’s decision.”
“Ticket distribution is the decision taken completely by the party senior leadership and I respect that,” said Chauhan.