Congress may field CM Harish Rawat from Kiccha to recover Udham Singh Nagar district

RUDRAPUR: With more than a dozen of Congress aspirants, including senior leaders and small-time workers, are lobbying for the Kichha assembly ticket, giving a tough time to the screening committee to finalise a candidate, it has been learnt that the party may consider some bigwig, including chief minister Harish Rawat, to bounce back in nine constituencies of Udham Singh Nagar district after a crushing defeat in the 2012 elections.
The increasing demand for the Kichha ticket among party leaders is being attributed to their assumption that there is a “Congress wave” in the state that “will sweep along this assembly segment as well”, especially at a time when the local BJP unit is “busy fighting factionalism”.
Last election, BJP’s Rajesh Shukla had defeated Congress’ S Y Khan with a margin of 8,000 votes.
According to party sources S Y Khan, party state secretary Harish Paneru, district president Narayan Singh Bisht, spokesperson Premlata Singh, chairman of the municipality Mahendra Chawla, former minister of state Arun Shukla, Tasavvar Ali, Thakur Manvendra Singh, D K Singh, Suresh Gauri, Suresh Gangwar and Anuradha Cahudhary are already in the race to get the party ticket.
Besides, local Congress leaders like D K Singh, Pushkar Raj Jain and several others have already started lobbying for the seat, sources said, adding that former Congress minister Tilak Raj Behar is likely to play a crucial role in the selection of a candidate, as this seat once was a part of the Rudrapur assembly, where Behar hails from.
Behar, however, said the selection of a candidate would be a collective decision taken by the party.
“When the BJP performed well in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, leaders started thinking that becoming an MP on a BJP ticket was a child’s play. Same thing is happening now with the Congress in Uttarakhand, where aspirants feel the Congress will retain power, envisaging Congress’ increasing reach among voters, especially in Kichha,” said a Congress leader on condition of anonymity.
A party official, who wished not to be identified, told TOI, “Even All India Congress Committee (AICC) in charge for the state Ambika Soni and central chairperson of party’s screening committee Kumari Selja know about the lobbying in the party in Kichha. And taking a note of differences among leasers over the Kichha ticket, the party may eventually filed a bigwig to evade the possibility of a rebellion.”
Paneru, told TOI, “I am not in a position to say who would be the party’s candidate from Kichha. I am not among those who take a call in such matters. Our senior leaders will decide.”
Meanwhile, Congress insiders are not ruling out the possibility of fielding Rawat from the seat in the face of crushing defeat faced by the party in the last elections. The Congress could manage to win only two out of the nine constituencies in Udham Singh Nagar district
Besides, its two legislators, Shailendra Mohan Singhal from Jaspur and former chief minister Vijay Bahuguna from Sitaganj (won by-polls), have joined the BJP. And thus, in view of all these developments, the party may field Rawat to retain the lost district.
According to 2011 census, the Kichha constituency has nearly one lakh voters, of which 25 are Muslims, 20% each Pahadi, and Punjabi and Sikh community, 18% Purvanchali, and 15% Bengalis and Gangwars. Minority communities together constitute the maximum number of vote share in the constituency.