Seeing infighting within the Congress to get ticket for local body polls, Congress general Secretary and Uttarakhand Congress-in-charge Choudhary Birender Singh has reached Dehradun on Wednesday. Sources said that more than five people are lobbying for one seat; so the party is making all efforts to avoid repetition of Assembly election-2012 scenario when dissidents had contested election against the party candidate and ultimately Congress achieved 32 out of 70 assembly seats.
Since declaration of Kinner Rajni Rawat as contestant for mayor election by the BSP, both Congress and BJP State heads have been warily reviewing all pros and cons before deciding the candidate. Due to this reason they have been releasing candidates' list phase-wise. The first day, BJP released 41 candidates and Congress released 11 candidates; on the second day, the Congress released 38 candidates and BJP released mere 12 candidates. Although both parties are silent on Dehradun Mayor seat as if they want to see Opposition candidate before finalising their candidate.
In Congress circle four names including Ex Mayor Manorma Dobriyal Sharma, Ex cabinet Minister Hira Singh Bisht, PCC vice President Suryakant Dhasmana and MCD opposition leader Ashok Verma are giving tough fight to each other. In BJP three names Mayor Vinod Chamoli, ex-GMVN Chairman Umesh Aggrawal and state BJP treasurer Anil Goel are giving tough fight to each other.
As we know that this local body polls will decide fate of the chief minister Vijay Bahuguna, who has been facing stiff challenge within the party since defeat in Tehri lok Sabha by poll, so he is not ready to leave any stone unturned. In this circumstances he along with PCC president Yashpal Arya empowered party high command to finalise name of candidate for local body polls.
Elections will be held for municipal corporations in Dehradun, Haridwar, Roorkee, Haldwani, Kashipur and Udhamsinghnagar. A total of 15,20,527 voters are likely to exercise their franchise. Around 3,61,092 voters are registered in Dehradun, 1,52,719 voters in Haridwar, 81,849 in Roorkee, 97,799 in Haldwani, 77,936 in Kashipur and 74,554 in Udhamsinghnagar.