Congress Releases First List of 53 Candidates for Uttarakhand Polls

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The Congress on Saturday, 22 January, released its first list of 53 candidates for the Uttarakhand Assembly elections.

While Uttarakhand Congress President Ganesh Godiyal will contest from the Srinagar seat, Leader of Opposition in the outgoing Assembly Pritam Singh has been fielded from the Chakrata (ST) constituency.

Meanwhile, Yashpal Arya and his son Sanjeev Arya, who quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and switched over to the Congress in October 2021, will contest from Bajpur and Nainital constituencies respectively.

Former Chief Minister Harish Rawat and Harak Singh Rawat, who joined the party only on Friday, have not been mentioned in the first list.

Elections will be held for 70 seats in the Uttarakhand Assembly in a single phase on 14 February. The counting of votes will take place on 10 March.

Other Candidates

Sumit Hridayesh, the son of senior Congress leader Indira Hridayesh who passed away in June last year, has been fielded from Haldwani.

Other names include Deepak Bijalwan, Vijaypal Singh Sajwan, Rajendra Singh Bhandari, Dr Jeet Ram, Mukesh Singh Negi, Manoj Rawat, Pradeep Thapliyal, Dhani Lal Shah, Mantri Prasad Naithani, and Vikram Singh Negi, among others.

The hill state will witness a triangular battle this time – between the ruling BJP, the Congress led by Harish Rawat, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).