Uttarakhand: Congress releases third list of candidates, Harish Rawat to contest from Lalkuan

The Congress on Wednesday released its third list of candidates in which the party has changed the seat of Harish Singh Rawat and four other leaders.

Dehradun (Uttarakhand): Former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Singh Rawat will contest the February 14 Assembly election from Lalkuan, instead of Ramnagar. The Congress on Wednesday released its third list of candidates in which the party has changed the seat of Harish Singh Rawat and four other leaders. Mahender Pal Singh has been fielded from Ramnagar.

The last date of filing the nomination is January 28. However, suspense over the candidature for Tehri Assembly Constituency still continues as PCC chief Kishore Upadhyay's name was missing from the list, thus increasing the speculation of him joining the BJP.

It is being speculated that Kishore Upadhyay may contest from Tehri Assembly Constituency on BJP Ticket. The change has been done after the crisis within the party due to infighting among the leaders, as one of the working presidents of Uttarakhand Congress Ranjeet Rawat was uncomfortable with the Candidature of Harish Rawat from Ramnagar Assembly Constituency.

Notably, Congress has given the ticket to the daughter of Harish Rawat, Anupama Rawat from Hardwar Rural constituency defying its own policy of 'one seat, one family'.

Sources close to Upadhyay say that the latter wants the revocation of suspension from all party posts. He had conveyed this to Congress leadership too. Notably, Upadhyay was removed from all the party posts recently following a disciplinary action.

In the third list of candidates released by Congress, following are the candidates and their respective seats: Harish Rawat (Lalkuan), Om Gopal Rawat (Narendranagar), Gaurav Chaudhary (Doiwala), Ravi Bahadur (Jwalapur-SC), Yashpal Rana (Roorkee), Anupama Rawat (Hardwar Rural), Kesar Singh Rawat (Chaubattakhal), Ranjit Rawat (Salt), Mahesh Sharma (Kaladhungi), Mahender Pal Singh (Ramnagar).

Uttarakhand is slated to go to Assembly polls on February 14 and the counting of the votes will take place on March 10.