The last date of filing nominations in Uttarakhand is 28 th January and today is 24 th. There are hardly four days left. The Bhartiya Janata Party has announced the list of its 59 candidates cutting the tickets of ten sitting MLAs with several of them feeling cheated and ready to turn hostile contesting independently, posing threat to the BJP candidates already in turmoil.
The Congress party has already declared its first list of 53 candidates bringing eighteen new faces from several constituencies with 17 seats remaining to be declared.
The Central Election Committee meeting is in progress with leaders like general secretaries n CEC chief Mukul Wasnik and KC Venugopal closeted with Uttarakhand Incharge Devendra Yadav, chief election strategist Harish Rawat, Uttarakhand Congress chief Ganesh Godiyal, leader of the opposition Pritam Singh etc to finalise the list of 17 candidates, likely to be released in the night say sources.
The Congress chief Sonia Gandhi may talk to the Uttarakhand leaders virtually said sources.
There are several seats on which there is tremendous tussle as the tickets of former Uttarakhand CM Harish Rawat, Dr. Harak Singh Rawat’s daughter in law Anukriti Gusain, Ranjit Singh Rawat who is a huge bottleneck in Rawat’s way interested to contest from Ram Nagar, Dr Harak Singh Rawat, whose name is taking the rounds being given ticket from Chowbattakhal against BJP heavy weight Satpal Maharaj, vice president Suryakant Dhasmana n claimant from Dehradun Cantt, former Uttarakhand Congress chief Kishore Upadhyay etc have not been cleared till yet.
According to the reports pouring in there are several seats on which both BJP and Congress has not opened their cards and are waiting for each other to declare their tickets first.
For instance the tickets of Tehri seat has been held up by both BJP and Congress from where Kishore Upadhyay had been MLA, earlier, but is in a fix having been removed from all party posts, accused of anti party activities by the Uttarakhand Incharge Kishore Upadhyay.
Similarly on Doiwala, Dehradun seat from where sitting MLA former CM Trivendra Singh Rawat has expressed his desire not to contest, the BJP and Congress has not declared their respective candidates.
Similarly, the daughter of Harish Rawat and general secretary of All India Mahila Congress Anupama Rawat who is interested to contest from Haridwar Gramin has also not been declared the Congress candidate.
There are also reports of Rawat’s son former Uttarakhand Youth Congress chief Anand Rawat also aspiring for a ticket from Salt constituency.
There are sure sort chances of the BJP leader n former MLA from Narendra Nagar, defeated by Subodh Uniyal in 2017, when he bagged 20000 votes Om Gopal Rawat joining Congress, likely to bag Congress ticket.
However, as per Congress party’s policy one family will be given one ticket but as was the exception for the recently defected MLAs father son duo Yashpal Arya and Sanjiv Arya there are possibilities of giving advantage to both the Rawats, Harak and Harish, though not confirmed, just a speculation.
On the Dehradun Cantt seat from where the wife of late Harbans Kapoor, sitting MLA n highly popular leader has been given ticket by BJP, Congress Vice President Suryakant Dhasmana and few other Congress candidates are aspirants.
Dhasmana who is the senior vice president of Congress had lost against Harbans Kapoor by over 8000 votes.
Therefore, though leader of the opposition Pritam Singh is trying hard for Suryakant Dhasmana, there are reports that the party is searching for a strong woman Congress candidate from this seat to counter Harbans Kapoor wife from BJP namely Savita Kapoor.
Yesterday an audio had gone viral in social media in which Harish Rawat was heard speaking to senior Congress workers of Ram Nagar expressing his desire to contest from here and asking for their advise n support. But the Congress workers at the other end had flatly refused to support Harish Rawat saying that for them Ranjit Rawat is Congress n Congress is Ranjit Rawat and that they have been associated with Ranjeet Rawat since a decade n want him win from here at all costs.
They catagorically said that he is welcome in Ram Nagar but not as a candidate. He is welcome if he comes to campaign n canvass support for Ranjit Rawat, a strong opponent of the former CM.
Rawat had no option but to feel demoralised. Earlier he had thought of contesting from Didihaat but since the candidate has already been declared from here, the chapter ends automatically.
There are reports that Harish Rawat finds the Ram Nagar seat a best bet for him and several other Congress leaders n workers especially those who are aspirant in addition to Ranjit Rawat had assured their full support to Harish Rawat inviting him to contest from Ram Nagar. Harish Rawat want that Ranjit Singh Rawat known as Bahubali is shifted to Salt but the latter is not interested having been the last time defeated candidate from Ram Nagar.
Moreover, in view of Salt being a, stronghold of BJP with Mahesh Jeena its sitting MLA, his brother former lawmaker from here Surendra Jeena who is no more, has been very popular in Salt due to his various development works executed during his previous two terms.
Currently, the seats which are in a fix for Congress are Salt, Ram Nagar, Chowbattakhal, Dehradun Cantt, Doiwala, Jhabreda, Rishikesh, Tehri, Jwalapur, Roorkie, Khanpur, Laksar, Haridwar, ( rural), Narendra Nagar, Lansdowne, Lal Kuwan, Kaladhungi etc.
The ticket of Anukruti Gusain n Kishore Upadhyay are final and there are reports that Harish Rawat, if not cleared from Ram Nagar due to the obstinacy of his opponent within party Ranjit Rawat, he may contest from Lal Kuan where his chances are quite bright.
