Hours before Harish Rawat was declared the Congress candidate from Ramnagar on Monday, his arch rival Ranjit Rawat within the party said people in Uttarakhand saw him as a better bet.
Even before the party announced its second list of 11 candidates on Monday evening, an audio clip went viral in which Harish Rawat, a local Congress leader, can be clearly heard saying that Ranjeet Rawat is a stronger contender than him. Huh.
Responding to the audio clip, Ranjit Rawat, a former Congress MLA and now one of the four working presidents of the state party unit, said that it shows that party workers of the area are not with Harish Rawat. He said that he has been working in this area for many years and hence is a strong contender for party ticket from this seat.
In the audio, Harish Rawat is purportedly talking to a local party leader about contesting from the seat and he is told that the party workers are fully in support of Ranjeet Rawat and for him Congress means Ranjeet Rawat and None.
When Harish Rawat asks him to think about the party, the leader says, “For us here party means Ranjit Rawat. We have been working with him for the last 10 years for the party.” Once considered “very close” to Harish Rawat, Ranjeet Rawat is now counted among his rivals within the party. He is currently the working president of the state party and had staked his claim for the Ramnagar seat.
In 2002, Ramnagar was represented by Congress veteran and former Chief Minister Narayan Dutt Tiwari. Tiwari is the only Chief Minister of Uttarakhand who has completed his five-year term. Ranjeet Rawat was elected as an MLA from the Salt Assembly seat in 2002 and 2007, but lost to late BJP leader Surendra Singh Jeena in 2012. Gina died of COVID-19 in 2020.
The Congress had released its first list of 53 candidates late on Saturday night and on Monday night released the second list of 11 candidates fielding Harish Rawat from Ramnagar. The party is yet to announce its candidates for the remaining six seats in the 70-member state assembly.
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