Ranjit Rawat to contest against his previous political mentor Harish Rawat from Ram Nagar as an independent with his son too contesting from Salt constituency?
After the announcement of the name of chief election strategist and chairman of the state election committee chief Harish Rawat who has till now in all the surveys emerged as the number one choice of the people of Uttarakhand, his strongest adversary in the party, who once used to be his most trusted protege is reportedly to contest as an independent candidate against his one time most beloved political mentor.
There are reports that former Congress lawmaker from Ram Nagar Ranjit Rawat had formally decided to contest from this seat from where he was an applicant till the last having met even party general secretary Mr. Venugopal along with some Congress leaders to consider his claim.
However, the ticket was bagged by the former CM Harish Rawat who is finding this seat quite convenient to win. Just two days ago a video had gone viral in social media about Harish Rawat conversing with some Congress political workers expressing his desire to contest from Ram Nagar assembly constituency to acknowledge their bent of mind towards his candidature.
But instead of welcoming him these workers outrightly rejected his proposal to contest saying that for them Congress is, Ranjit Rawat, and Ranjit Rawat is Congress. They have been working with him fir the last ten years and can’t accept anyone else accept him.
They catagorically said that Harish Rawat is, welcome in Ram Nagar, not as a Congress candidate but as his campaigner. Rawat had no choice but to say theek hai, dekhte hain and disconnected the call. Till then it was thought that may be Rawat may give up contesting from here but he got the ticket, putting Ranjit Rawat his bete noire in shock, who held the meeting with his supporters and finally made up his mind to contest as independent.
There are also reports thag his son will contest as independent from Salt, from where it is believed that Harish Rawat’s, son Anand Rawat, a former Youth Congress chief from Uttarakhand is claiming ticket from the party. The name of Rawat’s daughter, national Mahila Congress general secretary is being heard from Haridwar ( Rural) seat. Both these seats are still held up in the last list expected to be out tonight, probably. The other seats are Chowbattakhal, Pauri Garhwal from where Dr. Harak Singh Rawat’s name is, appearing against the BJP heavy weight n cabinet minister Satpal Maharaj.
The Narendra Nagar and Tehri Garhwal seats are also held up from where the names of former Congress chief of Uttarakhand Kishore Upadhyay and former BJP lawmaker Om Gopal Rawat, likely to join Congress are expected. Om Gopal Rawat is being considered as the bet bet against the Agriculture minister Subodh Uniyal who is the BJP candidate from Narendra Nagar, being the sitting MLA as well.
It may be recalled that Ranjit Singh Rawat, Harish Rawat’s bitter opponent had contested from Ram Nagar last time in 2017 but lost to Diwan Singh Bisht of BJP. He had been since then nursing this constituency n had applied for Congress ticket with great optimism but lost to Harish Rawat who bagged the ticket.
The wife of Satpal Maharaj, Amrita Rawat was the MLA from Ram Nagar in 2012 who later became a cabinet minister in Vijay Bahuguna’s council of ministers continuing further in the cabinet of Harish Rawat till 2016.
About a week ago Harish Rawat was invited to Ram Nagar constituency by majority of the ticket aspirants minus Ranjit Rawat to contest from this, seat as this would give the area tremendous impetus to development as they are highly optimistic that Rawat is a prospective chief minister of Uttarakhand who would win by flying colours and form a government with majority.
