CM Harish Rawat to contest from two BJP sitting seats

NEW DELHI: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Sunday relinquished his sitting seat and opted to contest from two sitting BJP seats – Kichha and Haridwar Rural - for the upcoming Assembly polls in a demonstration of his characteristic aggressive power-play . Rawat, who hails from Kumaon region, has also responded to BJP campaign that his regime had “neglected” the Garhwal region, has responded by personally contesting from the two regions.

The decision, sources said, followed AICC agreeing to Rawat's plea that he should not only be leading the Congress fight against the BJP in the State but also should make the strategic move of personally fighting from sitting BJP seats in order to boost the fighting spirit of the Congress workers across Uttrakhand .

The 63 of the 70 seats announced by the AICC also showed the Chief Minister having his say in selection of most candidates, more so against those MLAs who defected from Congress and now contesting as candidates of saffron party. Rawat has also got the AICC to allot party tickets to at least two leaders – Suresh Chand Jain and Raj Kumar -- who quit BJP last week to protest against the saffron party giving tickets to Congress defectors in their respective seats. While all Congress sitting MLAs were fielded again, three seats have been left to party ally PDP.

Haridwar Rural seat, one of the two BJP sitting seats from where Rawat is contesting, has never elected a Congress nominee since the formation of Uttarakhand. PCC chief Kishore Upadhyay, who lost from Tehri seat in 2012, has been shifted to BJP sitting Sahaspur which has been a traditional safe Congress constituency in the past.