Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat’s wife Renuka Rawat and former Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna’s son Saket Bahuguna figure in the list of Congress lok Sabha candidates from Uttarakhand announced on Thursday.
While Rawat’s wife has been fielded from the Haridwar seat represented by him in the past, Saket will contest from Tehri Garwhal, a constituency from where his father had won in 2009 lok Sabha polls. While Harak Singh Rawat has been pitted against former BJP Chief Minister Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri from the Pauri Garhwal seat, Harish Rawat’s wife is contesting from Haridwar against another former Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.
The third candidate finalised by Congress is senior minister in the state government Harak Singh Rawat, who will contest from the Pauri Garwhal seat represented by Satpal Maharaj, who recently switched over to BJP from Congress. Congress has now declared nominees for all the five lok Sabha seats. It has already fielded its sitting MPs K C Singh Baba and Pradeep Tamta from Nainital and Almora seats respectively.
Congress sources said the party decided to field Saket Bahuguna from Tehri after his father Vijay Bahuguna refused to contest from the seat. Vijay Bahuguna had resigned from the seat after becoming the Uttarakhand Chief Minister in 2012. later, in a lok Sabha by-poll from the seat, BJP candidate Mala Rajya laxmi defeated Saket by a margin of over 22000 votes. Harish Rawat, who had won from Haridwar in 2009 and served as a Union minister in the UPA government, resigned from the seat earlier this year after being made the Chief Minister of the state.