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BJP’s youth leaders in race for tickets
The BJP’s youth wing leaders are keen on contesting assembly elections in at least a dozen seats, many of which are represented by senior party leaders of Uttarakhand.
The BJP’s youth wing leaders are keen on contesting assembly elections in at least a dozen seats, many of which are represented by senior party leaders of Uttarakhand.
Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) state unit president Kunadan Latwal, 33, wants to be a candidate from the Almora seat. “I have staked claim for a ticket from Almora seat. Senior party leaders will also want to contest from there. But the party knows about my work and I am hopeful of bagging it (the ticket),” Latwal told Hindustan Times on Monday.
Manoj Tiwari of the Congress won the Almora seat in the 2012 assembly election, defeating BJP’s Raghunath Singh Chauhan by a thin margin of 265 votes. Bhajun Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Shekhar Lakhchaura stood third.
Like Latwal, many youth wing leaders – all below 40 years – are in the race for tickets. They claim that the BJYM’s groundwork at the booth level in all the 70 seats is a major reason for the success of the BJP’s ongoing parivartan yatra, kicked off in the state on November 13 by party’s national president Amit Shah.
Gajraj Bisht, a former BJYM state president, has sought a ticket from Kaladhungi, represented in the assembly by Banshidhar Bhagat of the BJP. Bhagat defeated Prakash Joshi of the Congress in 2012 by 2370 votes. He wants to be nominated again for the seat, party sources said.
Saurav Thapliyal, another young leader, eyes the Doiwala seat won by Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ of the BJP in 2012. In a by-election in 2014, Heera Singh Bisht of the Congress defeated BJP’s Trivendra Singh Rawat.
Vinod Kandari has staked claim for a ticket from Deoprayag where education minister and Progressive Democratic Front (PDF) leader Mantri Prasad Naithani defeated BJP’s Diwakar Bhatt in 2012 by 1541 votes.
Ajyendra Ajay is a contender for the Kedarnath seat, which was won in 2012 by Congress’s Shailarani Rawat who switched to the BJP with eight other rebels early this year.
Ritu Bhushan Khanduri, daughter of former chief minister BC Khanduri, and Amit Kapoor, son of Dehradun Cantt MLA Harbans Kapoor, could also pitch for tickets in assembly elections, sources said.
