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Uttarakhand polls: CM Pushkar Dhami says will contest from Khatima assembly constituency
Dhami is a 2-term and sitting MLA from Khatima, having won this seat in both the 2012 and 2017 assembly elections.
Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said on Saturday he will contest the upcoming assembly elections in the hill state from his current assembly constituency of Khatima, as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) geared up for the single-phase polls, which will take place on February 14.
“I will contest the election from the Khatima constituency. We all are together and ready to contest the polls. This time, we have given a slogan 'Abki Baar 60 Paar'. The candidates' list will be announced soon,” Dhami said, according to news agency ANI.
The chief minister was speaking to the media after attending the state BJP's core committee meeting to finalise the list of candidates for the 70-member Uttarakhand legislative assembly.
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Located in the state's Udham Singh Nagar district, Khatima is a seat which witnessed its first assembly polls in 2002. The Congress won this seat in both the 2002 and 2007 polls, after which it was bagged by Dhami for the BJP in both 2012 and 2017.
Meanwhile, Dhami, who is forty-six, became CM in July last year, succeeding Tirath Singh Rawat, who himself succeeded Trivendra Singh Rawat in March 2021.
In the 2017 state elections, the BJP pushed Congress out of power by winning 57 seats, thus forming a majority government, while the latter was victorious only on 11 seats. While the BJP improved its tally by 26 from five years earlier, the Congress' went down by as many as 21 seats.
