Congress list for Uttarakhand delayed as CM Harish Rawat, state chief Upadhyay at loggerheads over PDF

DEHRADUN: The Congress’s list of candidates for the 2017 polls has been delayed as differences between chief minister Harish Rawat and Uttarakhand Congress chief Kishore Upadhyay over accommodating members of ally Progressive Democratic Front (PDF) in ticket distribution remain unresolved, party insiders have said.
While the BJP has released its list of candidates for 64 of the 70 assembly seats on Monday, the Congress is yet to announce its contenders even as the nomination process for the state elections is set to begin on Friday.
TOI had earlier reported that Rawat and Upadhyay had come up with two different lists after “serious differences” emerged between the two on fielding candidates from as many as 15 seats.
“A string of meetings of the hill duo with the Congress national leadership since January 16 failed to achieve a consensus. The two leaders have locked horns over giving party tickets to four PDF MLAs - three Independents and one from Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD),” said a Congress leader on condition of anonymity.
The PDF, which also includes two BSP MLAs, stood behind the Rawat government during the crucial trust vote in the assembly in May last year, which ensured the CM being reinstated after two months of central rule. One of the BSP MLAs, Haridas, has joined Congress earlier this month after being denied a ticket by his party.
Party insiders have said that Rawat is in favour of giving party tickets to three Independents from the seats they had won in 2012. Mantri Prasad Naithani, Dinesh Dhanai and Harish Chandra Durgapal had won from the constituencies of Devprayag, Tehri and Lal Kuan as Independent candidates respectively.
The fourth PDF member Pritam Singh Panwar had won on a UKD ticket from Yamunotri, but is expected to jump into the fray from Dhanaulti this time.
“If the four PDF members are accommodated in the party list, some senior Congress leaders, including Upadhyay himself, will have to leave their home constituency. In 2012 elections, Dhanai had defeated Upadhyay by a margin of 344 votes from Tehri,” said a party source.
Talking to TOI, Upadhyay said that the party would contest on all 70 assembly seats in Uttarakhand.
“Our aim should be to win the elections but not by leaving party workers behind,” he said.