First choice out, Cong ropes in senior leader vs CM Pushkar Dhami; BJP asserts ‘walkover’
Senior Congress leader Nirmala Gahtori will be the party candidate against Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, who is seeking to get elected to the Assembly from Champawat seat.
Gahtori was picked after the Congress candidate from Champawat for the last five elections – ever since the formation of Uttarakhand – and two-time winner, Hemesh Kharkwal, declined what is likely to be a losing battle. The BJP has got off the blocks for the race proclaiming that the Congress has given it a “walkover”.
Gahtori, 60, knows she has a tough battle ahead, with the BJP set to pull out all stops to ensure that Dhami, who returned as Uttarakhand CM but couldn’t retain his own seat Khatima in the recent Assembly elections, wins handsomely and puts that episode behind him. Voting for the Champawat by-election is scheduled to take place on May 31, with the results on June 3.
A Brahmin leader, Gahtori started her political career as a gram pradhan in 1996, then contested the zila panchayat elections unsuccessfully, and has served as the Congress Champawat district president and member of the AICC. She was also the vice-chairman of the state women empowerment council during the Harish Rawat government in the state.
Sources in the Congress suggested that being in the mining business, the party’s first choice, Kharkwal, did not want to be on the wrong side of the CM and hence backed out of the contest.
In the recent Assembly elections, the Champawat seat was won by the BJP’s Kailash Chandra Gahtori, who vacated it for Dhami. There are other reasons too why it is considered a safe seat for the party. Since the first Vidhan Sabha elections in Uttarakhand in 2002, Champawat has always been won by the party that emerged victorious in the state polls.
Dhami also can draw on his links to Champawat, which lies next door to his native Udham Singh Nagar district in Kumaon region. A majority of the over 96,000 voters are upper castes.
The Congress denies that in choosing Gahtori they have made the BJP task easier. “The same party that talks about women empowerment and claims that women voters voted them to power, is now calling it a walkover when we sent a women candidate to contest against the CM. This shows what the BJP actually thinks about women’s empowerment. Nirmala Gahtori is a big leader and it is going to be a close fight. We are fighting to win,” says Congress state media in-charge Rajeev Mehrishi.
For Gahtori’s nomination filing on May 11, all senior state Congress leaders will be present, including PCC chief Karan Mahara, CLP leader Yashpal Arya and deputy CLP leader Bhuvan Chandra Kapri. They will also camp in the constituency for three-four days to campaign for Gahtori.
