Uttarakhand Congress releases first list of candidates for upcoming elections

After a  lot of contemplation in Delhi for almost 10 days, the Congress released its first list of candidates for the assembly elections late on Saturday night. A total of 53 candidates are included in the first list. State President Ganesh Godiyal Srinagar and Leader of Opposition Pritam Singh will contest from their traditional Chakrata seat. The suspense remains on the Congress State Election Campaign Committee President and former Chief Minister Harish Rawat contesting the elections. Because his name is not included in the first list.

In the last assembly elections, the Congress had got only 11 seats. Out of these, Dr. Indira Hridayesh, the Leader of the Opposition, has passed away, while Rajkumar, an MLA who won on Congress ticket last time, had joined the BJP recently. Apart from these, the names of all the sitting nine MLAs of the party are included in the first list of Congress. Yashpal Arya and his son Sanjeev Arya, who returned to Congress from BJP some time back, have been given ticket by Congress from Bajpur and Nainital seats respectively. Former BJP MLA Malchand has also been given ticket by Congress from Purola. Most of the Congress leaders who contested the last assembly elections have also been included in the list. These include the names of many MLAs who were members of the third Legislative Assembly of the state. Congress has made her son Sumit Hridayesh the candidate from the traditional Haldwani seat of Dr. Indira Hridayesh, who was the leader of opposition.

The most notable fact in the list is that in the year 2016, all the Congress MLAs who stood with the party during the crisis on the then Harish Rawat government have been given full attention. It is clear that Harish Rawat’s stand has got the full support of the high command in ticket distribution. The names of Dr Harak Singh Rawat and his daughter-in-law Anukriti Gusain Rawat, who were inducted into the Congress six days after being expelled from the BJP, could not find a place in the first list. However, the candidate of the Lansdowne seat from which Anukriti is a contender has not been announced yet. From which seat Harish Rawat will contest, it is not clear yet as his name is not there in the first list. It is believed that the answers to such questions will be found in the second list to be released soon.

List of candidates announced by Congress