Thursday, 10 August 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The declaration of the schedule of the assembly by- election in Bageshwar by the Election Commission of India has intensified the political activity in the State. Intense deliberations on the selection of the candidate for the crucial by-election have started in both ruling BJP and opposition Congress party. The ruling BJP is likely to play the tried and tested emotional card by fielding one of the family members of late Chandan Ram Dass in the contest. The ruling party is most likely to give its ticket to the widow of Dass or to his son. The Congress on the other hand has prepared a panel of three candidates for Bageshwar which includes Ranjit Dass, the party candidate in last year’s assembly elections.
In the election of 2022, Basant Kumar of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) received impressive support from the electorate and was able to corner more than 16000 votes. It is learnt that the Congress party is luring Basant Kumar and he is likely to leave AAP and join Congress party in coming days. If Kumar defects to Congress, he is likely to be given a ticket.
The Uttarakhand Congress has appointed Mahendra Lunthi as its observer and Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Karan Mahara and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in state assembly Yashpal Arya have already visited Bageshwar.
The PCC president Karan Mahara told The Pioneer that the party is fully prepared to contest Bageshwar by election. He claimed that the Congress will win the by-election by a good margin if the ruling BJP refrains from misusing the official machinery.
In the assembly election held in the year 2022, Chandan Ram Dasss of BJP won from the Bageshwar reserved assembly seat by defeating his nearest rival Ranjeet Das of Congress party by a margin of 12,141 votes. The BJP candidate secured 32,211 votes against 20,070 received by the Congress candidate.
The voting for the by-election will be held on September 5 and the counting of votes will be done on September 8 and the result will be declared on the same day.
