Uttarakhand: Brushing aside rival, Harish Rawat gets Congress ticket from Ramnagar

The Ramnagar constituency was caught in a bit of an intra-party storm

ITDC INDIA EPRESS/ ITDC NEWS The Congress on Monday released its second list of 11 candidates for Uttarakhand assembly elections and fielded former chief minister Harish Rawat from the Ramnagar constituency. Harish Rawat, who is the party's campaign head in the state, had unsuccessfully contested from the Haridwar-Rural and Kichcha assembly seats in the 2017 polls.

The Ramnagar constituency was caught in a bit of an intra-party storm. Before the the party announced its second list of 11 candidates on Monday evening, an audio clip went viral in which apparently a local Congress leader is heard telling Harish Rawat that his arch-rival in the party, Ranjit Rawat, is a stronger claimant for the seat than him. Reacting to the audio clip, Ranjit Rawat, former Congress MLA and now one of the four working presidents of the state party unit, said it shows that party workers in the area are not with Harish Rawat. He said he has been working in the area for several years, hence is the strongest contender for the party ticket from the seat. Harish Rawat was purportedly talking to a local party leader in the audio about contesting from the seat, and he was told that the party workers are fully in support of Ranjit Rawat and to them, Congress means Ranjit Rawat and no one else.

The Congress also fielded Anukriti Gusain Rawat from the Lansdowne assembly seat. She is the daughter-in-law of Harak Singh Rawat, who returned to the Congress fold from the BJP on Friday. The party has so far not decided on the candidature of Harak Singh Rawat, who recently defected from the BJP, and is yet to announce candidates for six more seats.

With this, the Congress has so far released its candidates for 64 candidates, after the first list of 53 candidates was released on Saturday night.

Harak Singh Rawat's insistence on a ticket for Anukriti from Lansdowne was said to have been the reason behind his estrangement with the BJP which finally led to his return to the Congress which he had quit in 2016.

Other candidates to figure in the list are Suryakant Dhasmana from Dehradun Cantt seat, Mohit Uniyal from Doiwala, Jayendra Chand Ramola from Rishikesh,  Barkha Rani and Virendra Kumar Jati from reserved SC seats of Jwalapur and Jhabreda respectively, Subhash Chaudhry from Khanpur, Antriksh Saini from Laksar, Sandhya Dalakoti from Lalkuan, and Mahender Pal Singh from Kaladhungi.

Uttarakhand goes to polls in a single phase on February 14 to elect its 70-member assembly. The results will be out on March 10.