By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 23 Jan: As expected, the Congress list of 53 candidates, issued late last night, has also resulted in rebellion by many ticket aspirants. Among those who have declared their intention to fight as rebel candidates include some of those who had lost the assembly elections in 2017 in the Modi wave.
Many women aspirants for the party ticket too have expressed anguish over denial of ticket to them. It may be noted that the Congress list of 53 has only 3 women candidates. It remains to be seen how many women can make it to the second list of 17 candidates that is expected by late Monday evening.
Congress has chosen to give tickets to all its sitting MLAs. In place of Indira Hridayesh, who passed away last year, her son Sumit Hridayesh has been given the party ticket from Haldwani. Aryendra Sharma, who was denied the ticket from Sahaspur in 2017 and who contested as a rebel candidate, has been obliged this time and given the ticket from Sahaspur. Last time, the ticket had been thrust upon Kishore Upadhyay from Sahaspur after denying him the ticket from Tehri. Among those who have been denied the ticket this time include former MLA Narayan Singh Arya from Gangolihat, who has also reportedly declared his intention to contest as an independent. Similarly, in the case of the Yamnotri constituency, Sanjay Dobhal has declared that he will contest as an independent candidate after having been denied the Congress ticket.
However, the party has repeated the ticket for 11 candidates who had lost the 2017 assembly polls. These are Pradeep Pal (Didihat), Mayukh Mahar (Pithoragarh), Lalit Farswan (Kapkot), Madan Singh Bist (Dwarahat), Rajendra Barakoti (Someshwar), Manoj Tiwari (Almora), Khushal Singh Adhikari (Lohaghat), Hemesh Kharkwal (Champawat), Dan Singh Bhandari (Bhimtal), Gopal Rana (Nanakmatta) and Bhuwan Kapri (Khatima).
Those who have been given the ticket for the first time include Khajan Guddu (Gangolihat), Ranjit Das from Bageshwar, Sanjeev Arya (Nainital), Sumit Hridayesh (Haldwani), Naresh Chand Singh (Kashipur), who is son of former MP KC Baba, Premamand Mahajan (Gadarpur), Meena Sharma (Rudrapur) and Navtej Pal Singh from Sitarganj.
Sources claim that Harish Rawat may be given the ticket from Ramnagar as he has been seeking the ticket from there. He is also demanding a ticket for his daughter, Anupama Rawat, from Haridwar Rural from where he had lost badly last time against Swami Yatishwaranand. Of course, his one time close confidante and now strong rival Ranjeet Rawat has been nurturing the Ramnagar constituency and is also demanding the ticket from there. However, if sources are to be believed, Ranjeet Rawat may be given the ticket from his old constituency, Salt, from where he had lost last time.
It is interesting to note that Harish Rawat has avoided contesting either from Haridwar Rural or Kicchha, both, the seats that he had lost the last time. In Kicchha, Tilak Raj Behad has been given the ticket instead. Behad has been losing from his traditional Rudrapur and, therefore, has been shifted to Kicchha this time. Interestingly, the first list did not feature Harish Rawat and Harak Singh Rawat. Speculation is rife that Harak Singh Rawat may be fielded from Chaubattakhal against Satpal Maharaj. It will also be interesting to see if Kishore Upadhyay is given the ticket this time or not.
Cong releases first list of 53 candidates in U’khand
NEW DELHI, 23 Jan (IANS): The Congress has released its first list of candidates for the Uttarakhand Assembly polls, and has named party’s state chief Ganesh Godiyal and legislature party leader (CLP) Pritam Singh in the list. The Congress has given tickets to father-son duo -Yashpal Arya and Sanjeev Arya, who defected from the BJP. They have been given tickets from Nainital and Bajpur while former Minister Nav Prabhat has been given the ticket from Vikasnagar. Sumit Hridayesh has been given the ticket from Haldwani. But former Chief Minister Harish Rawat’s name has not been declared in the first list and there is no clarity whether he will contest polls or not. The candidates on the list are Gangotri – Vijaypal Sajwan; Yamunotri – Deepak Bijalwan; Purola – Malchand; Badrinath Rajendra Bhandari; Karnprayag– Mukesh Negi; Tharali – Dr Jeetram; Rudraprayag – Pradeep Thapliyal; Kedarnath – Manoj Rawat; Ghansali – Dhanilal Shah; Devprayag – Mantri Prasad Naithani; Dhanaulti – Jot Singh Bisht; Pratap NagarVikram Singh Negi; Pauri Naval Kishore; Yamkeshwar Shailendra Singh Rawat; Kotdwar- Surendra Singh Negi; Srinagar – Ganesh Godiyal; Lansdowne – Anukriti Gusain; Chakrata – Pritam Singh; Vikas Nagar – Navprabhat; SahaspurAryendra Sharma; Dharampur– Dinesh Agarwal; Rajpur RoadRajkumar; Mussoorie- Godavari Thapli; Raipur- Hira Singh Bist; Rishikesh – Shoorveer Singh Sajwan; Haridwar – Satpal Brahmachari; RanipurRajveer Chauhan; Piran Kaliyar – Furqan Ahmed; Manglore – Qazi Nizamuddin; Bhagwanpur – Mamta Rakesh; Dharchula – Harish Singh Dhami; Pithoragarh – Mayukh Mahar; Didihat- Pradeep Pal; Gangolihat – Khajan Chandra Guddu; Bageshwar – Ranjit Das; Kapkot – Lalit Farswan; Almora – Manoj Tiwari; Jageshwar – Govind Singh Kunjwal; Someshwar Rajendra Barakoti; Ranikhet Karan Mahra; DwarahatMadan Bisht; Nainital Sanjeev Arya; Haldwani Sumit Hridayesh; Bhimtal Dan Singh Bhandari; Champawat – Hemesh Kharkwal; Lohaghat- Khushal Singh Adhikari; RudrapurMeena Sharma; Bajpur Yashpal Arya; Kashipur Narendra Chandra Singh; Gadarpur – Premanand Mahajan; Jaspur- Adesh Singh Chauhan; Kichha Tilak Raj Behad; SitarganjNavtej Pal Singh; Nanakmatta- Gopal Singh Rana; and Khatima- Bhuvan Kapri.
