Cong announces 3 candidates out of 5 from U’khand for LS polls
By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 12 Mar: The second list of the Congress Party for the Lok Sabha elections 2024 has been released and it features three party candidates out of the 5 seats in Uttarakhand. The names of 43 candidates are included in the second list. Congress has declared the final names of candidates for three out of five Lok Sabha seats in Uttarakhand after a meeting of the Central Election Committee (CEC) held today in Delhi. Ganesh Godiyal has been announced as Congress candidate from Garhwal (Pauri) seat, Jot Singh Gunsola from Tehri seat and Pradeep Tamta from Almora, Pithoragarh.
Sources in the party claimed that, for the Pauri Garhwal seat, names of former party president Ganesh Godiyal, Badrinath MLA Rajendra Bhandari, State Mahila Congress President Jyoti Rautela and former minister Harak Singh Rawat were also considered before finalising the name of former PCC Chief Ganesh Godiyal. It may be recalled that the party has been forced to consider a new candidate from this seat as the last time candidate, Manish Khanduri, recently quit the party and joined the BJP. The BJP is yet to announce its candidate on the Pauri Garhwal seat.
On Tehri, also, a new candidate had to be finalised by the Congress party since last time candidate Pritam Singh had expressed his reservations about contesting the parliamentary polls this time. The names of Nav Prabhat along with some relatively new faces were considered before the party finalised the candidature of Jot Singh Gunsola on this seat. Jot Singh Gunsola is a three-time MLA from the Mussoorie seat but has lost two straight assembly elections to Ganesh Joshi before refusing to contest the last time.
From Almora-Pithoragarh, the name of the Leader of the Opposition, Yashpal Arya. was considered as a strong contender but he too expressed his desire not to contest. The party was forced to announce the last time candidate Pradeep Tamta, a former Rajya Sabha member. Thus, 2 new candidates have been announced by the Congress. Sources conceded that many big leaders refused to contest the parliamentary elections this time.
The Haridwar and Nainital candidates have not been announced, as yet. It is not easy for the party to choose a candidate from Haridwar as this remains the only seat from where there are several strong contenders including Harish Rawat and Anand Singh Rawat (Harish Rawat’s son). On this seat, the INDI Alliance partner, Samajwadi Party, is also lobbying for a ticket and has demanded that former Lok Sabha MP Rajendra Singh Badi be made the candidate.
It may be recalled that BJP has already fielded candidates on 3 seats, whose names were announced on 2 March, but its remaining candidates on Pauri and Haridwar are yet to be announced. On all the three seats, BJP has placed its bet on the sitting MPs, namely Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah (Tehri), Ajay Bhatt (Nainital) and Ajay Tamta (Almora-Pithoragarh).
According to sources, in the Congress Screening Committee held recently, the equations for the Lok Sabha seat, contesting candidates, local issues and situations were discussed. On the other hand, at the organisation level, a survey was conducted regarding the contenders for all the seats. After completion of the survey, a second meeting of the screening committee was called, from which a panel of three to five names of contenders for each Lok Sabha was prepared and sent to the Central Election Committee. After a long discussion on the candidates, the party announced the candidates today after the CEC meeting held in Delhi.
