Dehradun: Congress candidate Basant Kumar filed his nomination for the forthcoming Bageshwar assembly bypoll in Uttarakhand on Thursday, which was the last date for filing nominations. The by-election is scheduled to be held on September 5.
Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Karan Mahara, Leader of Opposition in Uttarakhand Assembly Yashpal Arya, Khatima MLA Bhuwan Kapri and Haldwani MLA Sumit Hridayesh accompanied Kumar to the collectorate office where he filed his nomination papers. Kumar led a party rally — a show of strength by the party ahead of the bypoll — to the collectorate office.
Kumar who quit the Aam Aadmi Party to join the Congress just a few days before being declared as the latter’s candidate for the reserved seat is pitted against the BJP’s Parvati Das — the wife of former cabinet minister Chandan Ram Das whose untimely death in April this year necessitated the bypoll in Bageshwar.
Kumar had contested from the seat as an AAP candidate in the 2022 assembly elections and finished third behind the BJP and Congress with 16,109 votes.
BJP’s Chandan Ram Das had won the seat with 32,211 votes while Congress’s Ranjeet Das had finished second behind him with 20,070 votes.
Interestingly, Ranjeet Das who was the BJP’s nearest rival in the last assembly polls also quit the Congress just a few days back to join the saffron party saying he was doing so to save his self-esteem.
Chandan Ram Das had been a BJP MLA for four consecutive elections since 2007. The BJP has fielded Parvati Das from the seat in the hope of capitalising on sympathy votes.
“I am confident the people of Bageshwar will pay tribute to their departed leader Chandan Ram Das ji by voting for his wife who will carry forward his unfinished work,” Uttarakhand minister Premchand Aggarwal said.
Political experts feel the bypoll is going to be important in many ways as it is being held ahead of next year’s Lok Sabha polls. It is important also for Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami as it is the first electoral battle under his stewardship after he won the Champawat bypoll with a record margin last year to remain in office for a second term.
The BJP government in the state hopes to make the most of its action against illegal land encroachments and recruitment scam accused and measures taken to implement the Uniform Civil Code.
The Congress, which has lost two back to back assembly elections in Uttarakhand, is eyeing the bypoll as a medium to make a comeback in the state.
“People are very angry with the BJP government in the state for the their silence on the atrocities against women, lathicharge on the unemployed, the problem of migration and the shortage of doctors. They are in a mood to teach the BJP a lesson,” PCC president Mahara said.
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