CM Rawat may contest bypoll from Gangotri

Uttarakhand chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat met the BJP’s national president JP Nadda in Delhi on Wednesday night and discussed the seat from where he could contest the byelection to enter the state assembly, said people aware of the matter.

Rawat may contest from the Gangotri seat, although the matter has yet to be finalised, said those in the know. Several MLAs have offered to vacate their seats for the CM, they said.

The CM, who was in Ramnagar till Tuesday to attend the party’s ‘Chintan Shivir’ (brainstorming session), suddenly rushed to Delhi on Wednesday. “He met the BJP’s national president yesterday. We are a national party and chief ministers keep meeting the party’s national president frequently,” agriculture minister Subodh Unial, the state government’s official spokesman, told ET.


Meanwhile, on Thursday, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) named a popular face, Colonel (retired) Ajay Kothiyal, as its candidate for the Gangotri seat, which has been lying vacant since the death of the BJP’s Gopal Singh Rawat.

A former principal of Uttarkashi-based Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Colonel (retired) Kothiyal, who joined the AAP on April 19, is known for his contribution to the reconstruction of Kedarnath after the 2013 flash floods.

Haldwani seat is also lying vacant following the death of Indira Hridyesh of the Congress. CM Rawat, who took oath as chief minister on March 10, has to be elected as MLA before the completion of six months on September 9.