Uttarakhand BJP faces problem of plenty ahead of Lok Sabha polls
The Uttarakhand BJP faces a challenge of retaining all the five Lok Sabha seats after the Congress won three heartland states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in assembly elections late last year.
Selection of candidates for this year’s Lok Sabha polls could be tough for the BJP high command with several stalwarts lobbying for tickets, even as the party has said that its sitting parliamentarians would be repeated from all the five seats in Uttarakhand.

Some of them, who are veterans of many elections, have gone to the media openly urging the BJP brass to consider their claim for party tickets, citing their experience. The ruling party faces a challenge of retaining all the five Lok Sabha seats after the Congress won three heartland states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in assembly elections late last year.
The demand for tickets began after BJP parliamentarian from Nainital Bhagat Singh Koshiyari said in a recent statement that he had conveyed to the high command about his inability to re-contest elections citing his age.
With the party veteran showing reluctance to contest the election, five other BJP leaders tossed their hats into the ring demanding party tickets for the Nainital constituency. They are minister Yashpal Arya, former minister and MLA Banshidhar Bhagat, besides three party legislators — Pushkar Singh Dhami, Rajkumar Thukral and Rajesh Shukla.
Arya, who represents the Bajpur assembly constituency and is a six-time MLA, said he had urged the high command for a ticket from Nainital as he had won assembly elections from two-third of the area of the Lok Sabha seat.
Shukla, who has consecutively won from Kichha twice, justified his “request to the high command” for a ticket from Nainital, saying he had defeated Congress veteran and former chief minister Harish Rawat from that seat in the 2017 assembly elections. With Dhami and Thukral also seeking tickets from Nainital, the BJP brass would be in a bind to select one candidate with so many aspirants vying for the seat.
The central BJP leadership also seems to have its task cut out for other four Lok Sabha seats -- Almora, Tehri, Pauri and Haridwar. In most of these seats, the ruling party faces either the problem of plenty or runs the risk of some of its heavyweight leaders joining the opposition Congress, if they are not given party tickets, a BJP insider said.
Infighting in the party came to the fore over the Tehri parliamentary constituency represented by party veteran Mala Rajlaxmi Shah.
While speaking on a party forum recently, she accused her rivals of denying her ticket by showing her poor performance through a fake survey. Shah, who hails from a royal family and is of Nepali origin, reportedly turned so emotional while raising the issue that BJP national general secretary (organisation) Ramlal intervened to mollify her.
A senior state BJP leader said the party brass wanted to replace her from Tehri but was wary of any such misadventure fearing that the Congress might woo her due to her popularity among her rural constituents and among the people of Nepali origin.
Union minister of state for textile Ajay Tamta, a Dalit leader of the BJP, represents Almora, a reserved constituency. Ground reports are said to be not so favourable for him. “Besides, Arya, another Dalit leader, is demanding a ticket from Nainital with an eye on Almora,” a senior state party leader said.
Ticket for Pauri too could be a contentious issue as minister Satpal Maharaj and former CM Vijay Bahuguna are eyeing the seat after parliamentarian BC Khanduri reportedly expressed his reluctance to re-contest from there. The party faces a similar dilemma in Haridwar currently represented by former CM Ramesh Pokhriyal as another BJP heavyweight and minister Madan Kaushik is eyeing that seat.
State BJP vice president JP Gairola said so many veterans vying for tickets reflected the party’s democratic nature. BJP state chief Ajay Bhatt said as far as he was concerned, the party would repeat all its five parliamentarians from the state. “The rest is the high command’s discretion,” he said.
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