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Journalism of Courage
Relatives of leaders account for 20% of the candidates fielded by the Congress and BJP for the February 14 elections to the 70-member Uttarakhand Assembly. Of a total of 14 such candidates, the BJP has fielded 8, including 4 first-timers, while the Congress has nominated 6, including 4 first-timers.
The Congress has fielded Anupama Rawat, daughter of former CM and Congress campaign head Harish Rawat, from Haridwar Rural seat, against sitting BJP MLA Swami Yatishwaranand, who had defeated Harish in the 2017 polls.
From the Lansdowne seat, Congress candidate Anukriti Gusain Rawat, daughter-in-law of ex-minister Harak Singh Rawat, will fight against sitting BJP MLA Daleep Singh Rawat, son of party satrap Bharat Singh Rawat. A senior leader, Harak recently returned to the Congress along with Anukriti after being expelled by the BJP.
The Congress has given ticket to Sumit Hridayesh, son of party veteran late Indira Hridayesh, in the Haldwani seat
against the BJP’s Jogendrapal Singh Routela. By fielding Sumit, the party is hoping to retain this seat held by his mother three times earlier.
In the Kashipur constituency, the BJP has passed on the mantle from sitting MLA Harbhajan Singh Cheema to his son Trilok Singh Cheema. Harbhajan, who has been winning this seat since the first Uttarakhand Assembly polls in 2002, asked the ticket for his son due to his old age. To take on Trilok, the Congress has fielded Kunwar Narender Chand Singh, the son of senior party leader Karan Chand Singh Baba, who had represented the Nainital-Udhamsingh Nagar parliamentary constituency.
Following the demise of Harbans Kapoor, an eight-time BJP MLA from Dehradun Cantt Assembly seat, recently, the saffron party has fielded his wife Savita Kapoor from the seat. The party hopes to garner “sympathy” votes in this stronghold of Kapoor, a former minister and Speaker, who had also represented the seat in the UP Assembly four times before the creation of Uttarakhand.
Among other first timers in the fray is Kunwarni Devyani, who has been given a BJP ticket in the Khanpur seat from where her husband Kunwar Pranav Singh Champion has been a four-time party MLA. Devyani’s father Mahendra Bhati and her father-in-law Narendra Singh had been ex-UP MLAs.
The list of first-timers also includes the BJP candidate from Chakrata, Ram Sharan Nautiyal, the father of renowned singer Jubin Nautiya, who will take on the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Pritam Singh.
Both the BJP and the Congress have also given tickets to several relatives of politicians, who had fought the elections earlier too. The BJP has nominated sitting Yamkeshwar MLA Ritu Khanduri Bhushan, the daughter of former CM Major General (Retd) Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri, from Kotdwar. It has renominated the sitting MLA and son of ex-CM Vijay Bahuguna, Saurabh Bahuguna, from his Sitarganj seat.
The BJP has also given ticket to ex-minister late Prakash Pant’s wife Chandra Pant from Pithoragarh, and ex-MLA late Surendra Singh Jeena’s brother Mahesh Jeena from Salt, who had won the seats, respectively, in the 2019 and 2021 bypolls.
Former MLA Sanjeev Arya, who switched to the Congress along with his father Yashpal Arya from the BJP a few months ago, is contesting from Nainital as a Congress nominee.
The wife of veteran leader late Surendra Rakesh, Mamta Rakesh, an MLA from Bhagwanpur, is again contesting from the seat as a Congress candidate.
