The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Rawat to contest from two seats, many turncoats in Cong list of 63
UTTARAKHAND: CONGRESS FIRST LIST
UTTARAKHANDCHIEFMINISTERHARISHRAWAT appearstohavehadthelastlaughonselection of Congress candidates in his state. The Congress high command has not just agreed to his wish to contest from two seats, but also succumbed to his pressure and gave tickets to severalparty-hoppers—enraginglocalleaders.
The Congress announced its first list of 63 candidates for Uttarakhand on Sunday. Rawat will contest from Kichha and Haridwar Rural seats. Kichha is in Kumaon region, while Haridwar is in Garhwal. Rawat, who is from Kumaon region, had been putting pressure on the Congress high command to allow him to contest from one seat in Garhwal too to counter the narrative that the region had been neglected under his rule.
Hiscriticsintheparty,however,saidhewas not confident of retaining his Dharchula seat.
Uttarakhand Congress president Kishore Upadhyay was given ticket from Sahaspur seat instead of Tehri. Later in the night, Upadhyay’s supporters created ruckus at the state party headquarters in Dehradun.
Sources said that Independent MLA Dinesh Dhanai, who defeated Upadhyay in 2012 from Tehri, is mounting pressure on the Congress not to put up a candidate against him. Dhanai had been supporting the Rawat government.
What has enraged several local Congress leaders is that the party has given tickets to many turncoats. So much so that Rawat managed to secure a ticket for the wife of Jagtar Singh Bajwa, a former BJP leader who had called Rahul Gandhi an “anti-national” and called for his beheading. His wife Suneeta Bajwa has been fielded from Bajpur.
Thepartyalsogaveticketstomantriprasad Naithani and Harish Chandra Durgapal. Both were part of the PDF that had been supporting the Rawat government. They joined the Congress recently. Naithani was fielded from his Devprayag seat while Durgapal got his Lalkuwa seat. In 2012, Naithani contested as a Congress rebel against official candidate Shurvir Sajwan from Devprayag. He won and was made a minister in the Rawat government as a PDF nominee.
Besides, the Congress gave tickets to former BJP MLAS Dan Singh Bhandari and Bhim Lal Arya. While the former has been fielded from his Bhimtal seat, the latter got Ghansali, which he won last time.
Several new entrants also got tickets. Among them are Rajkumar from Purola, Ambrish Kumar from BHEL Ranipur, former BJP leaders Suresh Chand Jain from Roorkee and Shailendra Singh Rawat from Yamkeshwar and Haji Taslim Ahmed from Laksar.
Prominent among the candidates are state ministers Indira Hridyesh, who will contest from Haldwani, Surendra Singh Negi from Kotdwar and Dinesh Aggarwal from Dharampur.