By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 27 Jan: The day after the Congress expelled its former PCC Chief, Kishore Upadhyay, from the party for a period of 6 years, he formally joined the BJP today. He was inducted by BJP State President Madan Kaushik at the BJP State Headquarters, here, in the presence of the party’s election in charge and Union Minister Pralhad Joshi. He was also made the BJP candidate from Tehri as the sitting MLA Dhan Singh Negi was dropped. Negi, on the other hand joined the Congress today and was declared as the Congress candidate from Tehri.
Addressing media persons after being inducted into the BJP, Upadhyay said that the media ought to ask the reasons for his joining the BJP from the Congress leadership which had expelled him for no fault of his. He, however, then went on to claim that he had been observing the RSS work in society and was impressed. That was one major reason why he chose to join the BJP.
It may be recalled that, yesterday, the BJP announced its second list of candidates leaving out only the Tehri and Doiwala seats. While this morning it became clear that Kishore Upadhyay would contest from Tehri as the BJP candidate, the party still could not finalise its candidate till this evening its candidate from Doiwala. The speculation within the party is that either the party leader, Deepti Rawat, or daughter of the late Bipin Rawat, former Chief of Defence Staff, could be brought in as the candidate from Doiwala. Deepti Rawat had contested as the BJP candidate from Chaubattakhal against the then sitting MLA, Amrita Rawat, but had lost. Deepti Rawat is currently the National Vice President of the BJP’s Women Wing. Sources late tonight claimed that Deepti Rawat’s candidature had been finalised by the party though the official announcement was yet to be made. Deepti Rawat enjoys the support of outgoing MLA and former CM Trivendra Singh Rawat according to sources in the party.
It may further be recalled that, yesterday, in its second list, BJP announced 9 candidates and they interestingly included Ritu Khanduri Bhushan, the President of the Uttarakhand Mahila Morcha of the BJP, and its sitting MLA from Yamkeshwar. She had been dropped from Yamkeshwar but now has been declared as the party candidate from Kotdwar, the constituency from where her father and then the sitting Chief Minister BC Khanduri had lost the elections ten years ago in 2012.
The other candidates announced by the BJP, yesterday, are Shiv Arora from Rudrapur in place of the sitting MLA Rajkumar Thukral, Jogendra Rautela from Haldwani, Shaila Rani Rawat from Kedarnath, Rajpal Singh from Jhabreda in place of sitting MLA Deshjraj Karnwal, Pramod Nainwal from Ranikhet, Munish Saini from Piran Kaliyar and Mohan Singh Mahra from Jageshwar.
Rautela, the BJP candidate from Haldwani, is the town’s Mayor. Rajkumar Thukral, meanwhile, has declared that he will contest as an independent candidate from his constituency Rudrapur after being denied the ticket by the BJP. He also claimed that he had been denied the ticket due to some conspiracy. At the same time, BJP leader Vir Singh Panwar has filed nomination as an independent candidate from Dharampur constituency to protest denial of ticket. He had been demanding the BJP ticket from Dharampur in place of sitting MLA Vinod Chamoli.
