Champion dares Rawat to contest from Khanpur

Sandeep Rawat

Tribune News Service

Haridwar, January 11

Khanpur MLA Kunwar Pranav Singh Champion has challenged Chief Minister Harish Rawat to contest against him from his Assembly segment. Champion is likely to get the BJP ticket. His challenge is in response to the recent statement of Harish Rawat wherein the latter said he would ensure that all 10 Congress rebels, who joined the BJP last year, lose the elections as they had “betrayed” the party as well as people of their constituencies.

Champion was among the Congress rebels who withdrew support to the Congress government in the state last year, resulting in a crisis for the Harish Rawat government. Later, the dissidents were disqualified to vote in the floor test that made it easy for Rawat to prove his majority in the Assembly.

Hardly a year ago, Champion would heap praises on Harish Rawat. He even sided with the Harish Rawat camp against the Vijay Bahuguna camp for some time, when Bahuguna was ousted from the Chief Minister office. He was then rewarded by Rawat with a cabinet minister rank. During Rawat’s public hearing camps, Champion used to claim it was on his insistence that Rawat visited Jhabreda frequently.

But now, Kunwar Pranav Singh Champion, after joining the BJP fold, is extremely vocal against the Chief Minister.

Harish Rawat says he is one man army in Congress, and the BJP is calling its Union ministers to Uttarakhand for campaign as they are “wary” of him. Champion maintains, “He (Harish Rawat) just boasts, but in fact he is finding a suitable seat where he can win easily. If he is really a one man army, I ask him to contest from Khanpur where I have been a two-time legislator. Elections are fought on development and connection with voters, not on papers or through media advertisements.”

Referring to Harish Rawat’s four-time defeat from the Almora parliamentary constituency, Pranav said it was ample proof that people of Almora, from where CM Harish Rawat belongs, didn’t trust him. “Why will people of even other constituencies trust such a leader who is entangled in a sting CD case? Rawat will close his eyes if his ministers amass money to save his government,” he added.

Meanwhile, Haridwar Congress unit spokesperson Anurag Sharma said Kunwar Pranav, first of all, should apologise to voters of Khanpur for “betraying their faith as they had votes him in capacity of a Congress candidate” and not BJP’s.

“Kunwar Pranav Singh Champion should worry about getting a BJP ticket from Khanpur as now there are several former CMs, the so-called heavyweight leaders, in the party. BJP couldn’t name even a single person under whom the election campaign will be carried out. As far as four losses in Almora are concerned, Harish Rawat became MP from Haridwar with a record margin in 2009. He, for the past four years, has given a new development-oriented governance and shape to Uttarakhand. He can win from any of the 70 Assembly segments of Uttarakhand,” he added.