BJP releases list of 59 candidates, repeats many sitting MLAs, drops some

Friday, 21 January 2022 | PNS | Dehradun

The Bharatiya Janata Party released the first list of its candidates from 59 out of total 70 Assembly constituencies in Uttarakhand on Thursday. Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has been fielded from Khatima which he currently represents while other senior leaders too have been fielded from the constituencies which they currently represent. BJP state president Madan Kaushik has been fielded from Haridwar, cabinet ministers Satpal Maharaj from Chaubattakhal, Banshidhar Bhagat from Kaladhungi, Subodh Uniyal from Narendranagar, Dhan Singh Rawat from Srinagar and Arvind Pandey from Gadarpur. While sitting MLAs have been fielded from many constituencies, the sitting MLAs of 10 constituencies have been dropped from the list. Further, the party has fielded women candidates from six constituencies in the first list. The names of candidates from the remaining 11 constituencies are also expected to be declared soon.

Among the sitting MLAs who have been dropped, Munni Devi has been dropped and Bhopal Ram Tamta has been fielded instead from Tharali, Anil Nautiyal has been fielded instead of sitting MLA Surendra Singh Negi from Karnprayag, Devyani Singh has been fielded instead of her husband Pranav Singh ‘Champion’ while the daughter of former CM BC Khanduri, Ritu Khanduri has been dropped and Renu Bisht has been fielded instead from Yamkeshwar. Further, Raj Kumar Pori has been fielded from Pauri instead of sitting MLA Mukesh Koli, Fakir Ram Tamta has replaced sitting MLA Meena Gangola from Gangolihat, Suresh Gadiya has replaced sitting MLA Balwant Bhoriyal in Kapkot while Mahesh Negi has been replaced by Anil Sahi in Dwarahat, Raghunath Singh Chauhan has been replaced by Kailash Sharma in Almora and Harbhajan Singh Cheema has been replaced by Trilok Singh Cheema in Kashipur. On the same day that he left Congress to join the BJP, Durgeshwar Lal was declared the candidate from Purola. Among the other constituencies, sitting MLA Kedar Singh Rawat has been named the candidate from Yamunotri, Suresh Chauhan from Gangotri, sitting MLAs Mahendra Bhatt from Badrinath, Bharat Singh Chaudhary from Rudraprayag, Shakti Lal Shah from Ghansali, Vinod Kandari from Devprayag, Vijay Singh Panwar from Pratapnagar, Munna Singh Chauhan from Vikasnagar, Sahdev Singh Pundir from Sahaspur, Vinod Chamoli from Dharampur, Umesh Sharma ‘Kau’ from Raipur, Khajan Dass from Rajpur Road, Ganesh Joshi from Musoorie, Premchand Aggarwal from Rishikesh, Adesh Chauhan from BHEL Ranipur, Suresh Rathore from Jwalapur, Pradeep Batra from Roorkee, Sanjay Gupta from Laksar and Swami Yatishwaranand from Haridwar Rural, Dilip Singh Rawat from Lansdowne, cabinet minister Bishan Singh Chufal from Didihat, Chandra Pant from Pithoragarh, Chandan Ram Dass from Bageshwar, Mahesh Jeena from Salt, Rekha Arya from someshwar, Puran Singh Fartyal from Lohaghat, Kailash Gahtori from Champawat, Ram Singh Kaira from Bhimtal, Diwan Singh Bisht from Ramnagar, Rajesh Shukla from Kichha, Saurabh Bahuguna from Sitarganj and Prem Singh Rana from Nanakmatta. Veteran politician and pop singer Jubin Nautiyal’s father Ram Sharan Nautiyal has been fielded from Chakrata, Suresh Chauhan from Gangotri, previous independent MLA Pritam Singh Panwar from Dhanaulti, widow of late MLA Harbans Kapoor, Savita Kapoor from Dehradun Cantt, Satya Pal from Bhagwanpur, former Uttarakhand Mahila Congress president Sarita Arya who joined the BJP recently from Nainital, Dinesh Pawar from Manglaur, Dhan Singh Dhami from Dharchula, Shailendra Mohan Singhal from Jaspur and Rajesh Kumar from Bajpur.