Rear admiral (retd) Om Prakash Singh Rana, along with a group of ex-servicemen, met Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat at the Chief Minister’s residence here on Thursday. The visit is being viewed as significant considering the fact that Rana is one of the potential candidates listed by the Bharatiya Janata Party for contesting from the Garhwal Lok Sabha constituency on the party ticket.
Talking to The Pioneer, Rana said that his visit was basically a courtesy visit to the Chief Minister. He said, “I got to know from the newspapers that my name had also been included in the panel of potential candidates sent to the party’s high command from the State. Along with former servicemen and others, I made a courtesy visit to the Chief Minister’s residence. The final decision about selection of the candidates is up to the party high command, I simply met the CM as a courtesy,” he said.
It is pertinent to mention here that with a considerable number of serving and retired servicemen comprising a substantial proportion of voters in the State including Garhwal parliamentary constituency, there has been a demand from some quarters to field an ex-serviceman from the constituency.