Uttarakhand bypoll: BJP nominates late MLA’s wife, Cong fields ex-AAP leader

The Congress announced Basant Kumar as its candidate. Kumar had been the AAP’s candidate from the same constituency in 2022 and had also been vice-president of the AAP’s state unit.

BJP state president Mahendra Bhatt had previously confirmed that the party’s state unit had forwarded three names for consideration to its Central Parliamentary Board. Other than Parvati Das, the list included Deepa Arya, a former district panchayat member, and Chandan Ram Das’s son Gaurav Das.

On why the BJP decided to pick Parvati Das, the party’s state media in-charge Manveer Chauhan told The Indian Express: “She does not have a political background, but she belongs to a family that has been in politics for a very long time. She never held any post in the party or contested any election before this.”

“We did not pick Gaurav because it would mean that we were promoting nepotism. The BJP does not believe in nepotism. This is why we decided to give the ticket to Das’s wife. The people in the area have sympathy with the family as Das had been in politics for the last 25-30 years,” Chauhan said.

Bageshwar is one of the seven Assembly seats across five states to hold by-elections on September 5. The counting of votes will be held on September 8.

In the 2022 Uttarakhand Assembly elections, Chandan Ram Das won from Bageshwar by a big margin, getting 43.14 per cent of the votes, as opposed to Congress candidate Ranjit Das, who got 26.88 per cent. On Saturday, Ranjit Das joined the BJP.