Uttarakhand: BJP announces candidates for 5 LS seats

DEHRADUN: Ending days of speculations, the BJP on Thursday announced the list of five candidates of Uttarakhand for Lok Sabha polls.


BJP secretary, central election committee, J P Nadda announced the names of the party candidates. BJP named sitting MPs Mala Rajya Lakshmi Shah, Ramesh Pokhrial Nishank and Ajay Tamta in Tehri Garhwal, Haridwar and Almora respectively.

However, the entry of two senior BJP leaders, former state president Tirath Singh Rawat and existing state president Ajay Bhatt, was the biggest surprise. BJP picked them for Pauri Garhwal and Nainital seats respectively. The sitting MPs of the Pauri seat, Maj Gen (retired) BC Khanduri and Bhagat Singh Koshyari of the Nainital seat were dropped. The ailing Khanduri has publically stated that he would not contest and Koshyari has expressed his reluctance to contest the elections already.

Interestingly, Khanduri’s son, Manish Khanduri, is likely to be the Congress candidate from the Pauri seat and to cash in on Khanduri’s legacy. BJP has fielded Tirath Singh Rawat, who is considered to be his political protégé in the party for the past fifteen years. Political commentator Udit Ghildiyal was not surprised at the choice of the candidate in Pauri and Nainital seats. “To have caste-balance right, the BJP has changed the names for the two seats. The Pauri seat was a Brahmin seat and the Nainital a Thakur seat. Now the BJP has swapped the two and given the Pauri seat to a Thakur leader and Nainital seat to a Brahmin leader,” said Ghildiyal.