The Congress has finally announced the names of its candidates for the three remaining parliamentary constituencies in Uttarakhand. Chief Minister Harish Rawat’s wife Renuka Rawat has been fielded from Haridwar constituency, ex-CM and former Tehri MP Vijay Bahuguna’s son Saket Bahuguna has been fielded from Tehri, while Cabinet Minister Harak Singh Rawat has been fielded from Garhwal constituency. The party had last week declared sitting MPs Pradeep Tamta and KC Singh ‘Baba’ as the party candidates from Almora and Nainital constituencies respectively.
Though this has ended the uncertainty prevailing for some days, observers point out that the Congress will also have to tackle factionalism within its ranks considering that party ticket seeker from Garhwal constituency, lt Gen (retd) GS Negi has called the party’s choice in Garhwal wrong and that Cabinet Minister Surendra Singh Negi had also expressed his readiness to contest from Garhwal constituency a day before the candidates were declared. SS Negi is said to be close to CM Harish Rawat while Harak Singh Rawat is close to ex CM Vijay Bahuguna.
It will be recalled that though the names of Congress candidates from Haridwar, Tehri and Garhwal were reported to have been finalised a couple of days ago, factors like factionalism delayed the official declaration of candidates’ names.
After former Congress MP from Garhwal, Satpal Maharaj left the party and joined the BJP, lt Gen (retd) GS Negi was being considered a strong contender for the party ticket from here but the party put its faith of Harak Singh Rawat because he is considered to be politically strong and experienced enough to pose a challenge to the BJP candidate from Garhwal and former CM Maj Gen (retd) Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri. Rawat averred that his chances of defeating Khanduri were strong as he had done more work for the welfare of ex-servicemen as the State’s Soldier Welfare minister.
In Haridwar, Renuka Rawat is expected to receive an electoral boost from her husband and sitting Haridwar MP, CM Harish Rawat. Regarding the candidature of Saket Bahuguna from Tehri, there are some wranglings in the party about him being fielded from this constituency despite that he lost the 2012 Tehri by-poll when his father was CM.
He had then lost to Mala Rajyalakshmi of the BJP who has been fielded this time too by the BJP. However, Saket has expressed confidence about his chances of winning the election this time. According to him, the sitting MP has done little in the constituency in the past 18 months whereas he himself has been active in the segment even after losing the bypolls. His father Vijay Bahuguna has thanked Congress president Sonia Gandhi for giving Saket another chance and expressed confidence about his chances of winning as last time the cap put on subsidised lPG cylinders had gone against him. Congress State spokesman and party ticket seeker from Garhwal constituency, Dhirendra Pratap has welcomed the declaration of candidates by the party and expressed confidence that the party candidates will achieve a resounding victory.