Saturday, 15 JUNE 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The Bharatiya Janata Party declared the names of its candidates late on Thursday night for by elections to be held in two Assembly constituencies. It has fielded turncoat and former Congress MLA Rajendra Singh Bhandari from Badrinath Vidhan Sabha constituency and Kartar Singh Bhadana from Manglaur constituency. The Congress is in the process of shortlisting its panel of probable candidates for these two constituencies while the BJP has announced its candidates for both the seats.
According to observers, the core cadre of BJP was already miffed with the party leadership for taking Bhandari into the party considering his strong opposition to the BJP when he was in the Congress. The BJP evidently did not just ignore this feedback but has also fielded Bhandari from Badrinath. As the Congress candidate in the last Assembly election he had defeated the BJP State president Mahendra Bhatt. The BJP leaders state that considering the Lok Sabha election results in Uttarakhand, they are confident of winning both the seats in the by election. The party is confident of securing a victory in both the Vidhan Sabha constituencies but observers are sceptical about Badrinath considering the ground realities.
