In their bid to enter the Upper House as a member of Rajya Sabha, two BJP leaders, Anil Goyal and Geeta Thakur, who had filed their nomination as independent candidates, may give a tough fight to Congress supported candidate Pradeep Tamta on June 11.
None of the candidates visited the office of the returning officer to withdraw their nomination form for the Rajya Sabha election on the last date for withdrawal of form on Friday. With this, one thing is clear that three candidates can be expected to be wooing the voters i.e. MlAs on the day of polling. Till then there is considerable scope for horse trading in the State and legislators would keep Chief Minister Harish Rawat on tenterhook.
Political analysts say that with this development the MlAs who were given assurances before floor test by CM Rawat, would get enough time to get executed their promises or they could cross vote as well. It will be recalled that the Pradesh Congress Committee president Kishore Upadhyay, who could not fulfill his wish to enter the Rajya Sabha as a member of the upper house, has categorically said that there is need for introspection because Vidhan Sabha speaker, Rajya Sabha member Mahendra Singh Mahra and now Congress candidate for Rajya Sabha, Pradeep Tamta hail from the Kumaon region as well resulting in an apparent regional imbalance.
Talking to The Pioneer, returning officer has confirmed that no candidate had come to withdraw nomination form on Friday. This has made it clear that the Congress candidate Pradeep Tamta would not get a walk over. As we know that in 2012 BJP did not give walk over the Congress candidate Mahendra Singh Mahra because BJP supported candidate Naresh Bansal had tried his luck.
Seeing this BJP did not field their candidate in 2014 so then Congress supported candidate Manorama Dobriyal Sharma got elected to Rajya Sabha unanimously. later due to untimely death of Manorama Sharma, cinema actor turned politician Raj Babbar got a walk over in Rajya Sabha by poll in the year 2015. This time there it was being anticipated by some that the Congress MlAs are running unhappy with the government so they may opt for cross voting.
The BJP high command, which had to face embarrassment since imposition of president’s rule in Uttarakhand, did not pay much attention to this seat but state BJP leaders have motivated two party leader to contest election as independents.
If they win then it would be huge victory for BJP because they would get one seat in Rajya Sabha. If they do not win then Congress candidate will have to consolidate with the members otherwise he would not get confirmation.