Dehradun: The Uttarakhand BJP sprang a surprise Thursday as it released its first list of 59 candidates for the upcoming state assembly polls, omitting 10 incumbent legislators, including its women’s wing president Ritu Khanduri Bhushan, and nominating former state Congress women’s wing chief Sarita Arya, who joined the BJP just three days ago.
Another name on the list that came as a surprise to many in the state party unit is that of Ramsharan Nautiyal — father of Bollywood singer Jubin Nautiyal — who had left the Congress and joined the BJP in 2014. He has been pitted against Congress heavyweight Pritam Singh.
Some of the 10 legislators dropped from the list were placated with their family members being given election tickets.
Talking about a few MLAs renominated from their respective seats, party sources said they were close to the expelled cabinet minister Harak Singh Rawat, and would have gone with him had the BJP denied them tickets.
These include MLAs Umesh Sharma Kau, Kedar Singh Rawat and Pradeep Batra.
Contacted by ThePrint, BJP state president Madan Kaushik said the selection of candidates was done on the basis of their “winnability” according to internal surveys conducted by the central leadership.
“The central leadership had set its own parameters to judge the performance of the sitting MLAs through obtaining feedback from voters and party workers. Names were finalised on the basis of the survey results as to their winnability,” he added.
The list of 59 candidates includes 15 members of the Brahmin community, and six women. The state assembly altogether has 70 seats.
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Significant additions, omissions
A significant omission from the candidates’ list is Ritu Khanduri Bhushan, who is the daughter of former chief minister Major General B.C. Khanduri (Retd), and the BJP MLA from Yamkeshwar.
The BJP leadership has fielded Congress dissident Sarita Arya from Nainital, where the party lacked a formidable face after its MLA Sanjeev Arya defected to the Congress with his father Yashpal Arya, who was a minister in the Pushkar Singh Dhami cabinet, three months ago.
Ramsharan Nautiyal has been given a ticket from Chakrata assembly segment, from where sitting Congress MLA and Leader of Opposition in the Uttarakhand legislative assembly Pritam Singh has been winning for four consecutive terms.
The list includes all 10 remaining ministers (CM + cabinet + ministers of state) in the Uttarakhand council of ministers (after the exit of Harak Singh Rawat and Yashpal Arya), and some Congress leaders who joined the BJP in 2016 after defecting during the tenure of the erstwhile Harish Rawat government.
While Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami will contest from Khatima for the third time, state Irrigation Minister Satpal Maharaj has been fielded from Chaubattakhal assembly seat for the second time. Water Resources Minister B.S. Chufal will contest for the fifth time from Didihat. Agriculture Minister Subodh Uniyal, one of the prominent 2016 defectors, has also been retained from Narendra Nagar, while Women and Child Welfare Minister Rekha Arya has been given another chance from Someshwar.
State Higher Education Minister Dhan Singh Rawat and Soldier Welfare Minister Ganesh Joshi have been retained from Srinagar and Mussoorie, respectively. State BJP chief Madan Kaushik has been fielded from Haridwar City for the fifth consecutive time.
Apart from Ritu Khanduri Bhushan, the other dropped sitting BJP legislators include Khanpur MLA Kunwar Pranav Singh ‘Champion’, Almora legislator Raghunath Singh Chauhan, Pauri MLA Mukesh Koli, Gangolihaat MLA Meena Gangola, Harbhajan Singh Cheema from Kashipur, and Dwarahat legislator Mahesh Negi. The ruling party also dropped its Karnprayag MLA S.S. Negi due to his ailing health, and Munni Devi from the Tharali assembly constituency.
In some of these cases, family members of the MLAs have been nominated instead. While Pranav Singh ‘Champion’ was replaced by his wife Kunwar Rani Devyani in Khanpur, Trilok Singh Cheema, son of Harbhajan Singh Cheema, will contest from Kashipur assembly seat.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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