Uttarakhand chief minister (CM) Pushkar Singh Dhami is likely to contest the bypoll election from Champawat seat, said officials in the know of the matter.
Local MLA Kailash Gahtori who is in Dehradun, has already offered to vacate his seat for Dhami. As he gets a signal from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) high command, he will resign from the membership of the Uttarakhand assembly, party sources said.
“A meeting of party workers was held at the residence of MLA Gahtori in Banbasa on Sunday to decide the future strategy. Party workers stressed that if the party high command permits Dhami to contest the bypoll from the Champawat seat, the party will witness a historical win. Local MLA Gahtori has already has offered his seat for Dhami,” said Deep Chandra Pathak, district president, BJP, Champawat.
All the members have offered to support Dhami unanimously if the party high command allows him to contest the election from Champawat, said a party leader, on the condition of anonymity.
After meeting, Gahtori left for Dehradun to meet the CM and other party senior leaders.
Dhami needs to be a member of the state assembly within six months if he wants to continue his tenure as the CM. The party high command gave him another chance at the top post even after he was defeated from his own home turf Khatima by Congress candidate Bhuwan Kapri by a margin of 6,579 votes.
“It is now almost clear that Champawat seat is safe for contesting bypoll. He had given a hint of his intention on April 2 when he visited for two days the first week of this month,” said a senior leader of Champawat, who didn’t wish to be named.
{{/usCountry}}“It is now almost clear that Champawat seat is safe for contesting bypoll. He had given a hint of his intention on April 2 when he visited for two days the first week of this month,” said a senior leader of Champawat, who didn’t wish to be named.
{{/usCountry}}Dhami had visited Champawat on April 2 for two days. It was his first visit after being repeated as CM. He had hinted his intention of contesting the election from Champawat during an address in Banbasa.
While addressing the audience, he had hinted that he would contest a byelection from the Champawat assembly seat.
Notably, six newly-elected BJP MLAs had offered their seats to Dhami for contesting the election. Champawat seat has been considered safe for Dhami because, apart from Ghatori’s offer, there are no political factors like Khatima such as Punjabi, Tharu tribe, Bengali or Purbiya vote factors. Around 50% of the voters live in plain areas like Tanakpur and Banbasa and the rest in the hill area of the Champawat. Dhami may easily access the voters of the plain area.
Ghatori retained the Champawat seat defeating Congress candidate Hemesh Kharkwal by a margin of 5,304 votes. He obtained 32,547 votes while Kharkwal received 27,243 votes. Since, the BJP has won the seat for the second consecutive term, the seat is considered the saffron party dominated area.