Dhami to contest from home turf Khatima

ANNOUNCEMENT ENDS SPECULATION ABOUT THE CHIEF MINISTER SHIFTING FROM HIS TRADITIONAL SEAT

RUDRAPUR: Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami will contest from his home turf Khatima seat in US Nagar district for assembly polls, ending speculations about his shifting from his traditional seat.

In the first list released for the February 14 assembly polls, the BJP declared candidates for eight out of nine seats in US Nagar, leaving out Rudrapur.

Khatima seat has become the epicentre of the election for the BJP because Dhami has been declared the CM face of the party in assembly election.

US Nagar has 1,229,667 voters – 644,332 male and 585,335 female. The district has nine assembly seats -- Jaspur, Kashipur, Bazpur, Gadarpur, Rudrapur, Kichha, Sitarganj, Nanakmatta and Khatima. BJP won eight seats in the last election and the Congress only Jaspur.

Former cabinet minister in the BJP government Yashpal Arya has joined the Congress so he is likely to contest from Bazpur on a Congress ticket. The BJP has declared Rajesh Kumar in his place.

So far, all candidates have been repeated except the Bazpur and Kashipur seat where BJP has fielded Trilok Singh Cheema in place of his father Harbhajan Singh Cheema, a four-time MLA.

Education minister Arvind Pandey, Rajesh Shukla, Saurabh Bahuguna and Prem Singh Rana have been fielded again from their respective constituencies.

Khatima has 119,980 voters. Dhami will be in direct fight with the Congress candidate as Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have lost their stronghold. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has no political base here.

According to local analysts, if one takes caste equations into account, Khatima has 25% Thakur voters, 5.17% Brahmin, 24% scheduled tribe, 18% scheduled caste, 6.5% Sikh and Punjabi, 4% Bengali, and 7.5% Muslim are voters.

Apart from the caste factor, the voters are divided into Pahari, Punjabi, Tharu, SC,

Purabiya, and Bengali.

“Though Dhami is the CM and the CM face of BJP in the election, he will have to face several challenges here. He will have to struggle here as local expectations, problems, price hike in household items, cooking gas, petrol-diesel, farmers’ factor (particularly Punjabi and Sikh) will make his win tough,” said Khushal Singh Gaira, a local trader of Khatima.

Being CM and CM face of the party will benefit to Dhami, but mindset of the voter, price hike, tribal and Muslim factors will pose challenge before him.

History shows that if a Tharu candidate contests election, maximum tribal voters vote for him cutting across party lines.

“It is a matter of pride for us that a CM from the area and the CM face of the party is contesting from here. After retaining the seat, he will definitely become CM. He didn’t have sufficient time for the development for his area. In next tenure we hope for speedy development of Khatima,” said Govind Singh Samant, an ex-armyman of Khatima.

“He is son of an ex-serviceman and made efforts to set up a CSD canteen in Khatima which was our years-long demand,” Samant added.

“BJP has taken strong decisions for the country and for the defence of the country. In present situations, it is necessary to make BJP strong and it can be done only by voting for BJP. As far as Dhami is concerned, we hope he will work for the betterment of ex-servicemen,” said Heera Chand of Khatima, another ex-serviceman.

In Kashipur constituency, BJP has fielded Trilok Singh Cheema, son of Harbhajan Singh Cheema who announced his unwillingness for contesting election due to age factor in November.

After his announcement, several party leaders were seeking ticket but the BJP picked Trilok Cheema who joined the a few weeks ago. By fielding him, party wants to diffuse the impact of three farm laws among the farmers and want to seek their votes. Farmers of US Nagar had participated in anti-farm law agitation in the district and at Ghazipur border.

The BJP is yet to announce ticket for Rudrapur assembly seat since a section of party leader and workers is opposing sitting MLA Rajkumar Thukral.

Thukral has put the party in uncomfortable situations many times with his controversial statements. Despite this, the two-time MLA is considered a strong candidate from Rudrapur. He won the seat in 2012 and 2017 with a landslide, defeating Congress candidate Tilak Raj Behar, a former cabinet minister.