By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 12 Jun: Not wanting to spare any effort to win the upcoming Assembly bypolls in Badrinath and Manglaur constituencies, Congress state in charge Kumari Selja today held an online meeting to review the party’s preparations.
Selja brainstormed today during the virtual meeting on the election strategy for the bypolls in these two assembly constituencies. Selja said that, in the coming elections, the party leaders and workers have to fight the elections strongly at the booth level and in a united manner. She also instructed the State Congress Committee President, Karan Mahara, to prepare a panel of names as possible candidates from these two seats and send them to the Party High Command at the earliest.
Selja further emphasised that, in the coming elections, the party leaders and workers will have to fight the elections strongly at the booth level by forgetting their differences and standing united. Selja also shared that the state co-in-charge for party affairs in Uttarakhand, Deepika Pandey, will be visiting Uttarakhand soon. During this virtual meeting, appointment of election in-charges on both the assembly seats was also discussed. All the MLAs were asked to pay special attention to both the seats and fulfil their responsibilities. Kumari Selja said that, now, when the political environment is turning in favour of Congress, the BJP ought to be given a befitting reply by defeating it in both the by-elections.
Pradesh Congress Committee President Karan Mahara shared with Selja his political assessment regarding the Badrinath assembly constituency. He informed her he was speaking from the Badrinath constituency. Preparatory meetings are being held continuously with the party workers. Mahara further stated that the party would soon prepare a panel of suitable names in a day or two and send it to the high command. Booth in-charges would also be appointed soon. Declaring the candidates early would give them enough time to campaign well for the elections. He also promised Selja that the party would work hard and ensure Congress wins on both the seats.
In the virtual meeting, former Chief Minister Harish Rawat, Leader of the Opposition Yashpal Arya, former State Party President Ganesh Godiyal also offered important suggestions. They said in one voice that all the top leaders of Congress, MLAs and office bearers will fight the elections with all their might. Deputy Leader of the Congress Legislative Party, Bhuvan Kapri, National Secretary of Congress and probable party candidate from Manglaur, Qazi Nizamuddin, Co-in-charge Deepika Pandey and Amarjit Singh were present at the Zoom meeting.
It may be recalled that Congress has lost all the five seats in the just concluded Lok Sabha elections and would like to restore some of its lost ground by winning these two bypolls. The Badrinath seat was earlier held by Congress but it fell vacant due to the resignation of the incumbent MLA, Rajendra Bhandari, who has since joined the BJP. Manglaur seat had fallen vacant in October last due to the demise of incumbent MLA Sarvat Karim Ansari of the BSP. While Congress would like to retain the Badrinath seat, it will also like to win the Manglaur seat, which has never been won by the BJP. Manglaur has a high population of Muslim voters and here BJP has never been able to perform well ever since the formation of Uttarakhand as a separate state.
