Uttarakhand polls: Congress releases 2nd list of candidates, fields Harish Rawat from Ramnagar

Harish Rawat (File photo: ANI)

New Delhi: The Congress on Monday (January 24, 2022) released its second list of 11 candidates for the Uttarakhand assembly elections and fielded former chief minister Harish Rawat from the Ramnagar constituency.

Harish Rawat, who is the party's campaign head in the state, had unsuccessfully contested from the Haridwar-Rural and Kichcha assembly seats in the 2017 polls.

The party also gave a ticket to Anukriti Gusain Rawat from the Lansdowne assembly seat. She is the daughter-in-law of Harak Singh Rawat, who returned to the Congress fold from the BJP on Friday.

Congress, however, has so far not decided on the candidature of Harak Singh Rawat and is yet to announce candidates for six more seats.

Other candidates to figure in the list are Suryakant Dhasmana from Dehradun Cantt seat, Mohit Uniyal from Doiwala, Jayendra Chand Ramola from Rishikesh, Barkha Rani and Virendra Kumar Jati from reserved SC seats of Jwalapur and Jhabreda respectively, Subhash Chaudhry from Khanpur, Antriksh Saini from Laksar, Sandhya Dalakoti from Lalkuan, and Mahender Pal Singh from Kaladhungi.

देवभूमि उत्तराखंड की सेवा करने के लिए पार्टी द्वारा विधानसभा चुनाव 2022 के लिए घोषित प्रत्याशियों को हार्दिक शुभकामनाएं।

कांग्रेस का आना हुआ तय,
अब उत्तराखंड में जनता की होगी विजय।। pic.twitter.com/QZPlpdNdjZ — Uttarakhand Congress (@INCUttarakhand) January 24, 2022

With this, Congress has so far released its candidates for 64 candidates, after the first list of 53 candidates was released on Saturday.

In its first list, the party had fielded Uttarakhand Congress president Ganesh Godiyal from the Srinagar seat and Leader of Opposition in the outgoing assembly Pritam Singh from the Chakrata (ST) constituency.

Yashpal Arya, a former Speaker in the state assembly, who had recently joined the Congress after quitting the BJP, has been fielded from his Bajpur-SC constituency. Arya's son Sanjeev Arya has also received a ticket and will contest from the Nainital (SC) assembly seat, which he quit after resigning from the BJP along with his father.

Sumit Hridayesh, the son of senior Congress leader Indira Hridayesh who died in June last year, has been fielded from the Haldwani assembly seat.

देवभूमि उत्तराखंड की सेवा करने के लिए पार्टी द्वारा विधानसभा चुनाव 2022 के लिए घोषित प्रत्याशियों को हार्दिक शुभकामनाएं

कांग्रेस का आना हुआ तय,
अब उत्तराखंड में जनता की होगी विजय pic.twitter.com/dGiJ5Z8CWK

— Uttarakhand Congress (@INCUttarakhand) January 22, 2022

The party has retained most of its sitting MLAs in its two lists announced so far. 

Uttarakhand, notably, will go to the polls in a single phase on February 14 to elect its 70-member assembly. The counting will be done on March 10.