Harish Rawat’s daughter demands 40% seats for women in Uttarakhand on the lines of UP. Kishore Upadhyay backs her demand

The daughter of the former chief minister of Uttarakhand and chairman, state election campaign committee Harish Rawat has enhanced the difficulties of her father who is already in various controversies with his bete noire, former state Congress chief Kishore Upadhyay sprinkling petrol to increase the spark further ahead, by demanding fifty percent tickets to women in the ensuing state assembly elections.

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The daughter of Harish Rawat, Anupama Rawat who is the Mahila Congress national general secretary has demanded 40% tickets for the women of Uttarakhand on the lines of the recent announcement made by the Uttar Pradesh general secretary and in-charge UP Congress affairs Priyanka Gandhi.

Addressing the media in a Mahila Congress function at Rajiv Bhawan in Dehradun, Anupama Rawat said that the history of the relentless struggle of women in Uttarakhand has been tremendous and highly laudable, the women are walking shoulder to shoulder with men in all fields of lives n are rather ahead of them. Hence they should also be politically empowered by giving 40% tickets to women as the Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi has done in Uttar Pradesh.

The Congress leader n UP general secretary has already announced giving 40% tickets to women in Uttar Pradesh. If it can be implemented there then why not in Uttarakhand said Anupama Rawat addressing the press conference.

She has publicly demanded from the Uttarakhand Congress chief n obviously her father Harish Rawat, who is the senior most leader of the Himalayan state to fulfil her demand, further creating more difficulties for him who is already facing infighting and factionalism within his party with Pritam Singh, the leader of the opposition and Kishore Upadhyay etc annoyed with the former.

Meanwhile, the former Congress chief n founding leader of Forests Rights movement of Uttarakhand Kishore Upadhyay has also supported the demand of Anupama Rawat saying that if Priyanka Gandhi can take the decision to give tickets to 40% tickets to Congress women in Uttar Pradesh with three gas cylinders free of cost, why can’t the same decision be implemented in Uttarakhand.

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Adding fuel to fire, Kishore has preferred siding with the daughter of Harish Rawat on whom he had earlier levelled charges of betraying n ditching him when he was opting for Rajya Sabha ticket from Uttarakhand while Harish Rawat was the CM of the state. He had then send his protege Pradeep Tamta to Rajya Sabha.

It may be recalled that if 40% tickets are delivered to women candidates in Uttarakhand out of 70, there would be 28 women legislators out of 70. It however, remains to be seen whether this decision is really implement fully or just remains a political gimmick.

Political analysts say that it may be a ploy of Harish Rawat to raise this voice in order to accommodate his daughter as one of the ticket seeker becoming MLA n then minister in Uttarakhand cabinet in case Congress gets absolute majority.

This demand is a part of that game say sources.

Meanwhile in a tweet Anupama Rawat has lauded Priyanka Gandhi’s decision to accommodate 40% women in the forthcoming UP elections by giving them party tickets.

In a tweet she wrote : The morale of our women community at the pan India level has been boosted after our leader Priyanka Gandhi announced that 40% of the women will be allocated party tickets in the forthcoming UP elections.

We also demand 40% of tickets to women candidates in Uttarakhand on the lines of UP said Anupama.

The elections are due in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa n in one more state but despite being a national general secretary where her father has the fullest say i.e. Uttarakhand she has asked for 40% tickets for women but not in Punjab, Goa etc say political analysts.

Why is demand being done selectively instead of issuing a national direction of giving tickets to 40% women in all the state’s ask these analysts ?

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