Virendra Rawat is son of former Chief Minister Harish Rawat, Prakash Joshi is former national secretary of Congress
Dehradun. After several days of hard work, Congress finally declared the candidates for Haridwar and Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar parliamentary seats late Saturday night. Virendra Rawat, son of former Chief Minister Harish Rawat from Haridwar and former national secretary of Congress Prakash Joshi from Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar have been given tickets. The party has bet on new faces on both the seats.
Former Chief Minister Harish Rawat’s lobbying worked and the party fielded his son as per his choice. On the other hand, Prakash Joshi, a loyalist of the party and a part of former national president Rahul Gandhi’s team, overtook all the contenders on Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar seat.
Congress had announced candidates for three of the total five parliamentary seats of Uttarakhand, Garhwal, Tehri and Almora, on March 12. There was a problem due to lack of consensus on the names of candidates for Haridwar and Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar seats. The matter was resolved after 11 days after the intervention of the party high command.
Former Chief Minister Harish Rawat was successful in getting his point accepted regarding the selection of candidates, especially for Haridwar. He was demanding a ticket for his son Virendra Rawat, while senior party leaders kept calling Harish Rawat a strong candidate in view of the current political challenge.
Finally, former national secretary Prakash Joshi won the ticket race for Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar seat. Former MP Mahendra Singh Pal was also considered ahead in the race of contenders for this seat. Later, the high-level committee formed for the final decision regarding the candidates expressed confidence in Prakash Joshi after discussions with the national leadership.
