A day after the All India Congress Committee released the first list of Pradesh Congress Committee office bearers in Uttarakhand, the PCC chief Kishore Upadhyaya has appointed Rajendra Singh as the party’s Haridwar district head as the election coordinator for ensuring the victory of the party’s candidate in the Bhagwanpur Assembly bypolls.
The list released by the AICC earlier has 22 party members made PCC vice presidents, 28 general secretaries and 10 working committee members with positions being accorded to the son of Chief Minister Harish Rawat and brother of recently deceased Cabinet Minister Surendra Rakesh. Observers opine that the first list of PCC office bearers favours Chief Minister Harish Rawat with attempt also being made to accommodate the supporters of regional party leaders with an eye on strengthening the party’s chances in the 2017 Assembly polls.
As per the list released by PCC spokesman Mathuradatt Joshi, those made PCC vice-presidents include Ravindra Jain, Mahendra Pal, SP Singh, Abdul Razzak, Ranvijay Singh Saini, Brahmaswaroop Brahmachari, Jot Singh Bisht, Bhagirath Bhatt, Ramprasad Tamta, Sher Singh Nauliya, Shankarchand Ramola, Shiv Kumar Mittal, Suresh Valmiki, Jaya Bisht, Sahab Singh, Qazi Nizamuddin, Santosh Chauhan, Ramesh Pande, Shakuntala Dattal, Bhuwan Nautiyal and Manoharlal Sharma.
Those made PCC general secretaries include Rajesh Juwantha, Karan Mahra, OP Chauhan, Aryendra Sharma, Rajpal Kharola, Rajpal Bisht, the CM’s son Anand Rawat, Jyoti Negi, Dinesh Vyas, Anupam Sharma, KS Rana, Irshad, Jagat Singh Khati, Khajan Pandey, Mohan Pathak, Harish Paneru, Ghanand Nautiyal, Godavari Thapli, Ram Singh Kaida, Vijay Sijwali, Yamin Ansari, Shilpi Arora, Satpal Brahmachari, Jaipal Jatav, Pradeep Bhagwadi, Navin Joshi and late cabinet minister Surendra Rakesh’s brother Subodh Rakesh who was also considered to be in the race for the Congress candidate in Bhagwanpur Assembly by-polls.
Observers point out that the Haridwar and Roorkee areas have been accorded noticeable representation apart from supporters of regional leaders. Meanwhile, on Thursday, PCC chief Kishore Upadhyaya appointed Haridwar district president Rajendra Singh as the party’s election coordinator to work for the victory of Congress candidate in the Bhagwanpur Assembly by-polls. He has asked Singh to establish coordination among party leaders and public in the constituency to ensure the party candidate’s victory.