Ending speculation with a surprise development, Uttarakhand PCC chief Kishore Upadhyaya declared the name of former Dehradun Mayor, Manorama Dobriyal Sharma as the Congress candidate for Rajya Sabha from Uttarakhand on Friday. The first woman mayor in the Uttarakhand, she has been active in the Congress since 1972. The various capacities that she has worked in in the past include All India Women’s Congress general secretary, chairperson of Asian Council of Mayors and All India Council of Mayors, member of Central Advisory Board in Child labour, member of the National Task Force of Urban Poverty Alleviation and Uttarakhand Women’s Congress president among others. She has remained politically active by participating in various protests organised by the party also courting arrest as part of Indira Gandhi’s ‘jail Bharo Andolan’ in 1976. She being named the Congress candidate for Rajya Sabha from Uttarakhand has surprised many as Manorama Dobriyal Sharma was not even being considered to be in the reckoning for this candidature.