The Bharatiya Janata Party brass is learnt to be going the whole hog to persuade the former Chief Minister ND Tiwari — who is acknowledged as the developer of Uttarakhand — and two Cabinet Ministers to desert Congress and join BJP. “This is the reason why the party has decided to keep six seats open after the list of 64 candidates was published on Monday,” said a BJP insider privy to the working of the party high command.
The six seats left open are three each from Nainital district and Dehradun district- Bhimtal, Haldwani and Ramnagar from Nainital district and Chakrata, Vikasnagar and Dharmpur from Dehradun district.
It is well-known that both Tiwari and Cabinet Minister Indira Hridayesh are eyeing tickets for their sons — Rohit Shekhar and Sumit Hridayesh respectively. While Rohit is interested to contest from Ramnagar seat Sumit is eyeing the Bhimtal seat. Indira has her eyes fixed on Haldwani seat from where she was elected in the 2012 election. And significantly, BJP has left these three seats open, something that is having eyebrows raised as to its next move in the direction of wrecking Congress from within.
It is learnt from the BJP insiders that the party has been searching for a suitable candidate for Bhimtal to take on the Congress after the incumbent MlA Dan Singh Bhandari had deserted BJP a day ahead of the crucial Rajya Sabha election-2016. Sumit if things happen as they desire would perfectly fit the bill.
Observers believe that Hridayesh jumping on to the BJP bandwagon is a distinct possibility in case the Congress brass denies ticket to her son Sumit from Bhimtal constituency. “In case both the stalwarts dessert Congress and join BJP it would be a deadly blow to the Congress, something that would tilt the poll balance decisively in favour of the saffron camp. True, it would send some in BJP to sulk. But the party leadership is interested more in breaking Congress rather than humoring its old cadres,” said a state watcher.
Notably, since Banshidhar Bhagat, who had trounced Hridayesh from Haldwani constituency during the Assembly election-2007, switched to Kaladhungi constituency and won from the seat during 2012 election, BJP has been finding it hard to put up somebody to take on the charismatic aura of the redoubtable Indira Hridayesh.
Similarly, BJP is yet to name candidate from Chakrata Assembly seat as it is trying to poach the incumbent Congress MlA. Pritam Singh has been representing Chakrata seat since the first Assembly election of Uttarakhand in 2002.
As far as Dharmpur seat is concerned , three BJP leaders - Prakash Suman Dhyani, Umesh Aggarwal and Vinod Chamoli- have locked horns, laying claim for the same. The party brass is aware of one of them being in touch with Congress, eager to join Congress and contest from Raipur seat in case he is denied ticket by BJP.
Things hang fire in Vikasnagar seat as BJP leader Munna Singh Chouhan has been seeking ticket for the seat while canvassing for his wife Madhu Chouhan for Chakrata seat. The party brass is yet to decide whether they would favour the couple with tickets.