Congress declares list of 51 candidates for Uttarakhand polls

Congress today declared a list of 51 candidates for the forthcoming elections to 70-member Uttarakhand assembly.

Harak Singh Rawat will be the Congress candidate from Rudraprayag seat while others in the fray include Jodh Singh Gunsola (Mussorie), Rajpal Singh Kharola (Rishikesh) and Satpal Brahmachari from Hardwar.

Pradeep Batra (Roorkee), Irshad Ali (Hardwar rural), Sunderlal Mandrawal (Pauri-SC), Mayukh Singh Mahar (Pithoragarh), Lalit Pharswan (Kapkote), Ram Prasad Tamta (Bageshwar-SC) and Manoj Tiwari (Almora) are among the other candidates in the fray.

Surendra Singh Negi will contest against Chief Minister BC Khanduri (BJP) from Kotdwar while Rewati Joshi will be in the fray from Didihat against BJP state unit chief Bishan Singh Chuphal.

Congress is confident of coming back to power, claiming there is an anti-incumbency wave against the BJP government due to a slew of corruption cases that came to light during Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank's chief ministership.

BJP was forced to ask Nishank to step down and he was replaced by Khanduri who has image of an upright leader. Khanduri has won a lot of support after his stand on bringing the Chief Minister under the Lokayukta but many feel these measures are too few and too late in the day.

Polling will be held on January 30.