Uttarakhand Assembly Elections: Elections will be held on February 14 for 70 seats in Uttarakhand.
New Delhi:
Congress released the first list of 53 candidates for the assembly elections in Uttarakhand on Saturday.
Uttarakhand Congress Speaker Ganesh Godiyal will fight from the Srinagar seat and Leader of the Opposition in the outgoing assembly Pritam Singh of Chakrata (ST) constituency.
The names of former Prime Minister Harish Rawat and Harak Singh Rawat, who joined the party only on Friday, did not appear on the party’s first list of candidates.
Harish Rawat had unsuccessfully contested the assembly seats of Haridwar-Rural and Kichcha in the 2017 election polls.
Yashpal Arya, a former state assembly chairperson who recently joined Congress after leaving the BJP, has been removed from his Bajpur-SC constituency.
Arya’s son Sanjeev Arya has also been removed from the Nainital (SC) assembly seat, which he left after resigning from the BJP along with his father.
Sumit Hridayesh, the son of senior congressional leader Indira Hridayesh who died in June last year, has been expelled from Haldwani’s assembly.
Elections for 70 congressional seats will be held in Uttarakhand on February 14 and the results will be announced on March 10.
Congress is trying to regain power from the BJP in the Hill State.
Manoj Rawat, the incumbent MLA of the Kedarnath assembly, has been re-drafted by the party.
Incumbent MLA Mamta Rakesh has been expelled from her Bhagwanpur-SC constituency.
The Congress has also drafted its incumbent MLAs Furkan Ahmad of Pirankaliyar, Qazi Mohd Nizamuddin of Manglore, Karan Mahara of Ranikhet, Govind Singh Kunjwal of Jageshwar and Adesh Singh Chauhan of Jaspur.
Surendra Singh Negi, a former MLA of the Kotdwar assembly seat, has been re-settled from the seat. Negi has been a former minister in the state. Jeet Ram has been seeded from the seat of Tharali (SC), who he lost in the 2017 polls.
Malchand, who lost the 2017 election polls on a BJP ticket, has been placed this time by Congress from the same Purola (SC) seat.
Vijaypal Singh Sajwan, who lost the Gangotri seat in the 2017 parliamentary elections, has been elected from the same constituency this time around.
