Seeking re-election for the third time from Rishikesh constituency after his name was cleared in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s first list of candidates, the sitting MlA Premchandra Aggarwal said that his campaign strategy would be two-pronged.
“On one hand, I will dwell on the non-cooperative approach of the Harish Rawat Government regarding development of the constituency and, on the other hand, I would enlighten the people of the string of developmental initiatives taken by the NDA Government at the Centre during its nearly two and half year period in office. Besides, I will reach out to them with my programmes to carry on with the tempo of development for the next five years if I am elected,” he said.
A segment of the Haridwar lok Sabha constituency post 2008 delimitation, Rishikesh constituency was earlier a part of Tehri Garhwal lok Sabha constituency. During the first election of the state in 2002 after the state was carved out of Uttar Pradesh in 2000, Congress won the Rishikesh seat as its candidate SS Sajwan was elected.
He said he would harp on what the Prime Minister Narendra Modi said during his rally in Dehradun last month, stressing on the need of a double engine to drive the developmentally stagnating Uttarakhand forward onto to the path of development-one from Delhi and the other from Uttarakhand. “This is an imperative, given the abyss the state is lingering in during the Harish Rawat regime,” he said.
A Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activist since his school days, he joined BJP much later. He remained BJP’s Nagar general secretary, Panchayat cell general secretary and Zila general secretary for years. He contested election for the first time from Rishikesh Assembly constituency in 2007 and was elected. The same repeated during the 2012 election. “I have done a lot during my tenure as the MlA for ten years. I undertook road construction works and played my role in building Triveni Ghat, several schools and colleges in the constituency. However, the pace of works slowed down due to the Congress-led State Government’s nonchalance during the past few years. Vindictive as it is towards the constituencies that elected BJP candidates, it tried all tricks in the book to block development in Rishikesh. Projects I initiated have remained incomplete because of this,” he averred.
“Take for instance the fact that roads involving Rs eight crore have been completed in my constituency whereas many crores have been spent to build new roads in the constituencies represented by Congress MlAs like Doiwala, Raipur and Rajpur Road,” Aggarwal alleged.
He said his strength lay in his readiness to promptly reach the people in distress. “Groomed in the RSS culture of selfless service, I always commiserate with my people during their time of weal and woe,” he claimed.