Uttarakhand polls: Congress shifts Harish Rawat to Lalkuwa seat, announces ticket to his daughter

Congress on Wednesday shifted its campaign face Harish Rawat to Lalkuwa seat for the Uttarakhand Assembly elections, two days after his name was declared for Ramnagar seat.

Congress also changed candidates in four more seats even as Rawat managed to get a seat for her daughter Anupama from Haridwar Rural.

Rawat replaced Sandhya Dalakoti in Lalkuwa while Mahender Pal Singh shifted to Ramnagar in place of the former. Singh was to contest from Kaladhungi from where Mahesh Sharma will now contest.

Separately, Congress also appointed Jyoti Rautela as the president of Uttarakhand Mahila Congress. She was a hopeful for Lansdowne, which went to Anukriti Gusain, the daughter-in-law of Harak Singh Rawat who returned to Congress.

In Jwalapur seat, Ravi Bahadur replaced Barkha Rani as he is considered a stronger candidate. Same was the case with Doiwala where Gaurav Chaudhary is the new candidate in place of Mohit Uniyal.

Sources said party assessment had earlier shown that Chaudhary and Bahadur were stronger candidates. With former BJP Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat saying that he would not contest, Congress believes that the contest in Doiwala has now been thrown wide open and a candidate like Chaudhary can romp home easily.

From Salt, one of Rawat's close aides Ranjit Rawat will contest. Ranjit Rawat had earlier threatened to contest against Harish Rawat in Ramnagar in case he was not given a ticket from Salt.

In Chaubattakhal, Kesar Singh Negi managed to outwit Rajpal Singh Bisht and Kavinder Istwal. Bisht last time lost to BJP's Satpal Maharaj by 7,600 votes while Istwal had contested the polls from the seat as an independent. Negi is a Vice President of Uttarakhand Congress.

With this, Congress has announced candidates for 69 out of 70 seats. The name for Tehri is pending where Congress is playing the waiting game after its leader Kishore Upadhyay is all set to join the BJP. Congress has recently removed him from all posts, including chairmanship of the Coordination committee.

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