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Uttarakhand CM Tirath Singh Rawat’s possible candidature spices up Salt bypoll
Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat needs to become a member of the legislative Assembly. He is currently a Lok Sabha MP.
Both the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress have expressed confidence of winning the April 17 bye-election in Salt constituency of Almora district amid speculation that Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat could be a candidate.
The seat had fallen vacant after BJP MLA Surendra Singh Jeena died of Covid-19 last year. The state election commission on Tuesday declared that the bye-election would be held on April 17 and the result would be declared on May 2. The bypoll is seen as the first major test ahead of next year’s assembly election in 2022.
The importance of the bypoll has increased because of the possibility of the BJP nominating the CM as its candidate to become a member of the state assembly. He is now a Member of Parliament from Pauri Garhwal constituency.
The Congress has already appointed observers for the bypoll including its MLA from Ranikhet and deputy leader of opposition in the assembly Karan Mahara. On Wednesday, he along with the other observer Harendra Sharma held meetings with party members in Salt to decide on the party’s candidate.
“The party will fight the bye-election with all its might despite the fact that the government and system would be with BJP as they are ruling the state,” Mahara said.
“It would be a very important election for us because it would be an opportunity for us to test the waters before next year’s state assembly elections. We would come to know the tilt of the public considering the burning issues of unemployment, corruption, price rise and the recent incident of lathi charge against the women in Gairsain during the budget session which was an insult to our mothers and sisters,” said Mahara.
He said that the observers are meeting the local leaders and party workers before taking any decision on the party’s candidate.
“After filtering out the names, we would inform the high command which will take the final decision,” said Mahara.
He also claimed that it would make no difference if chief minister Rawat contests from Salt.
“It will hardly matter if CM Rawat decides to contest from Salt, because he would have to answer the public on the misdeeds of previous CM Trivendra Singh Rawat,” he said.
The BJP is also equally confident of winning the bye-election.
The party’s state president Madan Kaushik said, “Our government has done many development works in the past four years and the public knows that. In Salt, we are confident of winning because the public is supporting us and have completely rejected the Congress.”
Political experts however, said that the Salt bye-election would not be a cakewalk for the BJP.
MM Semwal, political expert who is also a professor of political science at Garhwal Central University in Srinagar, Pauri Garhwal district said, “It will not be easy for the BJP. They will have to fight hard as it is a very tricky seat because people there are well-read and aware of the present political scenario.”
“At the same time, it will also be an actual test for Congress’ unity before the 2022 assembly elections. If they fight unitedly then they can give a tough fight to the BJP and even win it,” said Semwal.
The BJP has 56 members in the 70- member House while the Congress has 11. There is one independent MLA and a nominated member from the Anglo Indian community.
