Uttarakhand: Harish Rawat gets ticket from Nainital, Manish Khanduri from Pauri

DEHRADUN: Ending days of speculation, the Congress released the list of its five Uttarakhand candidate in early morning hours of Sunday. The nomination process for the first round of polling is scheduled to end at 3pm on Monday, March 25. In its list, the Congress has opted for youth as well as experience.

The son of five-time BJP MP and former chief minister Major Gen (Retd) B C Khanduri, Manish, has been made party nominee from Pauri. A former journalist, Khanduri worked for CNN at Atlanta before joining Facebook. Keeping the fact in mind that Manish's father is a five-time MP from Pauri, he was given ticket from this important constituency.

Despite strong opposition from some senior state Congress leaders, the party has shown faith in former CM Harish Rawat and has given him ticket from Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar constituency. Rawat was initially interested from Haridwar, where he won in 2009 and his wife got defeated in 2014 but, at the last minute opted for the Nainital seat.

Some senior Congress leaders expressed their annoyance over the issue. Eight out of the 11 Congress MLAs in Uttarakhand rushed to Delhi on Saturday to support Rawat's candidature.

Five-time Congress MLA and presently the state president Pritam Singh has been made party nominee from Tehri Lok Sabha seat. Singh's father Gulab Singh was an eight-time legislator from the constituency. A political heavyweight, Singh is expected to put up a good fight in the constituency which is presently represented by royal family of Tehri.

Rajya Sabha member Pradeep Tamta has been given ticket from Almora. Tamta has won the constituency in 2009 and lost it to BJP's Ajay Tamta in 2014. A member of the Harish Rawat camp, Tamta is a prominent face of Congress in Kumaon region. Therefore, he was given chance to contest from the reserve team of Almora.

Senior leader Ambrish Kumar has been given opportunity to contest from Haridwar. Kumar was also a member of Harish Rawat camp, but later he demanded ticket for a local from Haridwar. After Rawat opted for Nainital, Congress gave ticket to Kumar.