PNS | DEHRADUN
Former Kedarnath MLA Manoj Rawat is the Congress candidate for the Kedarnath Assembly bypoll. Contrary to the general expectation, the Congress announced its candidate before the Bharatiya Janata Party. With the BJP fielding two-time former MLA Asha Nautiyal, the electoral battle is expected to be an interesting contest. Political observers state that Rawat’s selection is especially interesting as the Pradesh Congress Committee president Karan Mahara had accused him of not properly participating in the Kedarnath Pratishtha Raksha Yatra undertaken by the party earlier this year.
Rawat was a member of National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) and Youth Congress. He maintained his Congress membership while working as a journalist. Rawat started a plantation programme in Badrinath Puri on August 20, 1999, the birth anniversary of late Rajiv Gandhi. “Even after my entry into the field of journalism, I personally ensured that this programme continued. All the forest clusters thus created are named after the late Rajiv Gandhi who is my source of inspiration. Apart from this important programme, I along with Youth Congress volunteers organised many medical camps on the route of Nanda Devi Rajjat Yatra from 1998 till 2003. I fought the Assembly election in 2017 from Kedarnath Vidhan Sabha and diligently served my constituency and its people,” Rawat said, while thanking the party and its leaders for fielding him in the Kedarnath bypoll.
With the BJP fielding a candidate more politically experienced than Rawat, the electoral contest is likely to be a tightly fought battle as the Congress is aiming to trounce the BJP in the constituency associated with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in recent years, while the BJP is trying to ensure its victory here for the same reason.
