Mussoorie municipal chairman Manmohan Mall claimed on Saturday that he had filed his nomination as the Congress candidate from Dhanaulty seat in Tehri district after being given symbol by the party. Yet things are still shrouded in murkiness.
Despite being announced as the party candidate for the seat, he was made to withdraw in favour of the Independent candidate Preetam Singh Panwar, a Cabinet Minister, who is one of the members of the alliance known as PDF.
As per the understanding reached between the PDF lawmakers and the Chief Minister Harish Rawat, Congress would not field candidates for the seats where the PDF MlAs are in the fray as Independents.
Things remaining unclear a day after the nomination process was over, CM Harish Rawat is saying that Mall was asked by the party high
command to withdraw to vacate space for Panwar to contest as Independent
candidate. But he is saying in the same breath that he has not received any official communiqué from the party high command on the matter so far.
Mention worthy, the matter regarding the PDF lawmakers seeking re-election turned into a bone of contention for the ruling party with the CM and the State party chief Kishore Upadhyay locking horns.
CM insisted that the PDF MlAs should be given free choice to opt either for contesting as Congress candidates or as Independents in grateful recognition of the critical role they played when the Harish Rawat government was embattled with several lawmakers turning rebels.
Upadhyay, on the other hand, was of the firm view that the party intent on contesting all the70 seats up for grabs, the PDF leaders must fall in line, meaning that they must contest as Congress candidates or
face Congress contenders in case they contest as Independents. A fierce
controversy ensued as the PDF members raised hackles against Upadhyay dictating terms to them.
However, as things rolled on, there are just two out of the six- member PDF left in the fray as Independents, one from Tehri Dinesh Dhanai and the other from Dhanaulty Preetam Singh Panwar.