New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday announced the names of candidates for 59 out of 70 seats in Uttarakhand for the upcoming assembly polls. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami will contest the upcoming elections from Khatima. Dhami is two-time MLA from Khatima constituency.
In the first list issued by the party, there are six women candidates. There are 14 Brahmin candidates, 22 Rajput candidates, 13 SC candidates while one candidate is from the ST community. Among the 59 candidates, 18 hold a postgraduate degree while 31 are graduates.
BJP has also given tickets to an ex-serviceman, a doctor and seven farmers. Four spiritual leaders have also been given tickets.
Notably, in the first list released today, 40 sitting MLAs have been given tickets while the party has dropped 10 sitting MLAs. The ticket of Ritu Khanduri, daughter of former Chief Minister Major General Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri, was cut from the list of 59 candidates released by BJP today. Ritu is the MLA from Yamkeshwar.
Those who have not been given tickets include Khanpur MLA Pranav Singh Champion, Tharali MLA Magan Lal Shah, Karnprayag MLA Surendra Singh Negi, Yamkeshwar MLA Ritu Khanduri and Pauri MLA Mukesh Singh Koli. Further, tickets were not given to Meena Gangola, MLA from Gangolihat, Kapkot MLA Balwant Singh Bhoryal, Dwarahat MLA Mahesh Singh Negi, Almora MLA Raghunath Singh Chauhan and Kashipur MLA Harbhajan Singh Cheema.
Uttarakhand BJP president Madan Kaushik will contest from Hardwar. Suresh Chauhan will contest from Gangotri constituency. Party leader Subodh Uniyal has been given the ticket from Narendranagar. Savita Kapoor will contest from Dehradun Cantt seat.
Kailash Sharma has been given the ticket from Almora constituency. Premchand Aggrawal will contest from Rishikesh. The Roorkee constituency ticket has been given to Pradeep Batra. Saurav Bahuguna will contest from Sitarganj. Arvind Pandey will contest from Gadarpur. Dhan Singh Dhami will contest from Dharchula.
The polling for Uttarakhand Assembly elections will take place in a single phase on February 14. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI)
