Taking the gauntlet thrown by Congress to humble the ten dissident Congress leaders, now in the Bharatiya Janata Party, at the upcoming hustings, BJP’s election committee is said to have decided on Friday that the names of eight of the ten such leaders, excluding the former chief minister Vijay Bahuguna and the former cabinet minister Harak Singh Rawat, would figure in the first list that is likely to be released on the occasion of Makar Sankranti or a day after. It is also learnt that the party has decided to field Bahuguna’s youngest son Saurabh Bahuguna from the Sitarganj seat as per understanding reached between Bahuguna and the BJP’s national leadership when the nine rebels switched to BJP. The fate of Harak Singh Rawat still hangs in fire with the former cabinet minister staking claim to lansdowne Assembly constituency which has a sitting BJP MlA. At the same time, the party top brass is likely to reject the claims of Rawat to make one of his followers lakshmi Rana a candidate too. Similarly, the plea of Satpal Maharaj for tickets both for himself and his wife Amrita Rawat is most unlikely to find receptive ears. It is learnt that the party would insist on only one of them take the plunge. As per sources, he is trying to secure ticket from Chaubattakhal constituency which is currently being represented by the former BJP state president Teerath Singh Rawat.
Sources said that party has taken decision regarding 50 out of 70 seats. They further informed that the national leadership has made the following list- Saurabh Bahuguna (Sitarganj), Harak Singh Rawat (Rudraprayag), Subodh Uniyal (Narendranagar) , Shailendra Mohan Singhal (Jaspur), Pranav Singh Champion (Khanpur), Amrita Rawat (Ramnagar), Umesh Sharma Kau (Raipur), Pradeep Batra (Roorkee), Rekha Arya (Someshwar) and Shailarani Rawat (Kedarnath).
However, the picture is still unclear about the seat Harak Singh Rawat would contest from. While the party is insisting that he should opt for the Rudraprayag seat whence he was elected in the previous election he is still clinging to his preference to try his luck from lansdowne seat while clearing decks for one of his die-hard followers lakshmi Rana to contest from Rudraprayag. The party is insistent on fielding Harak Singh Rawat from Rudraprayag seat for another reason. The BJP candidate who was defeated by Rawat in 2012 election Matbar Singh Kandari left BJP to join Congress after the election. later, he came back to BJP after failing to do much in Congress. “However, the BJP state spokesman Virendra Singh Bisht laying his claim too to the seat is making things a bit difficult as his claim can hardly be brushed aside the way Kandari’s claim can be” said a party insider.
Sources say that the party leadership is facing immense difficulties to take a final call on at least three Assembly constituencies –Narendranagar from where Omgopal is seeking ticket as against Subodh Uniyal, Roorkee from where former MlA Suresh Jain is seeking ticket as against Pradeep Batra and Kedarnath from where a veteran is staking claim as against Shailarani Rawat.
There are reasons to believe that Omgopal would not be happy if the Narendranagar seat is finally given to Uniyal. His track record regarding his contest from the seat is not that unimpressive. Contesting as an Uttarakhand Kranti Dal candidate, he had won the Narendranagar seat by defeating the then Congress’s sitting MlA Subodh Uniyal by a wafer thin margin of four votes in 2002 election. later, he joined BJP and contested election from the seat but lost to Subodh Uniyal by about 500 votes in 2012 election. “Since then, he has remained loyal to BJP. It is thus a bit difficult to reject his claim to placate a new inductee,” said an observer.
In Roorkee, Pradeep Batra fighting on Congress ticket defeated the sitting BJP MlA Suresh Jain in 2012 election by around 2000 votes. Thus there is not much of a problem to field him from the seat. Similar is the case with Dr Shailarani Rawat who had defeated BJP candidate by a margin of 2000 votes in 2012 election from high voltage Kedarnath.
As far as Jaspur seat is concerned BJP is finding it tough to choose a fitting candidate to take on Shailendra Mohan Singhal who is most likely to be re-fielded by Congress. Singhal has been on the winning streak since 2002. He won the seat as an independent candidate during the 2012 election and later, he won the seat twice on Congress ticket. In this election too, he has a clear edge over the BJP candidate whoever he may be.
Things are a tad uncertain regarding Amrita Rawat too. She was shifted from a constituency in Pauri district to Ramnagar in Nainital district during the 2012 election. But this time round, she is strongly disinclined to re-contest from the same seat. Her reluctance is justified, given the fact that she was elected from the seat during the last election, riding on the sizable Muslim vote. After her switch to BJP, things are most unlikely to repeat, leaving her vulnerable.