By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 10 Aug: Congress has also begun preparations for the upcoming assembly bypoll in Bageshwar. The party has started meetings in this respect and is also contemplating possible candidates to contest the bypoll. The bypoll has been necessitated due to the sudden demise of the incumbent MLA and cabinet minister Chandan Ramdas in the month of April.
The polling for the by-election has been announced by the Election Commission. The polling will be held on 5 September.
This is a reserved constituency for SC candidates ever since the formation of the state. The constituency has been won by Congress only once, so far, in the year 2002, and its candidate was Ram Prasad Tamta. Since then, Chandan Ramdas continuously won on this seat on behalf of the BJP, though he was made a minister only in 2022 for the first time. However, soon after taking over as minister, Chandan Ramdas was diagnosed with Cancer and he passed away in April this year.
According to sources, Congress is considering former Rajya Sabha and former Lok Sabha MP (from Almora ) Pradeep Tamta. Other names being discussed in the party are former candidate Ranjeet Das, who had lost to Chandan Ramdas by a relatively huge margin of over 12,000 votes, a big margin for this small constituency, and also Naval Das, who has never contested any assembly election in the past. The party may also spring a surprise.
Sources claim that owing his closeness to stalwart Congress leader Harish Rawat, Pradeep Tamta stands a good chance of getting the ticket. This depends on Rawat lobbying in his favour. Whether he will do so, is another matter. Sources claim that Rawat many not risk lobbying for any names because, in case of defeat, he will have to also share the responsibility. The Congress hopes to cash in on issues like inflation, recruitment scams and the Ankita Bhandari case, though time will tell if Congress can manage to break the stronghold of the BJP in the constituency.
The BJP, this evening, held a meeting of the State Parliamentary Board to decide on a panel of three names as possible candidates for the by-election. The meeting was chaired by BJP State President Mahendra Bhatt and attended by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and BJP General Secretary (Organisation) Ajaey Kumar amongst others. The BJP has been fielding family members of the sitting MLAs who have died as candidates for the by-polls and, even in this election, this can’t be ruled out.
