Monday, 14 AUGUST 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN

As was being speculated, the Aam Aadmi Party candidate in the Bageshwar Assembly elections in 2022, Basant Kumar joined the Congress on Sunday. He joined the party in the presence of the Pradesh Congress Committee president Karan Mahara and leader of opposition Yashpal Arya and former Rajya Sabha MP Pradeep Tamta. Speaking on the occasion, Mahara said that the Bageshwar Assembly by-election is conducted in a fair manner, the Congress will comfortably win by a margin of more than 10,000 votes.

It is pertinent to mention here that Kumar joined the Congress a day after the Congress’ candidate from Bageshwar in the 2022 elections, Ranjit Das joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. On being asked about who will be the party’s candidate in Bageshwar, Mahara said that the Congress will declare its candidate on Monday. He said that Das was also among the three potential candidates shortlisted by the Congress for the Bageshwar bypoll but had still joined the BJP despite having been treated well in the Congress.

Meanwhile, the BJP State president Mahendra Bhatt questioned if Kumar’s name had also been included in the panel of three potential candidates sent by the Congress to its central leadership. If that is the case, he questioned the Congress for including the name of a person who was not a member of the party in the list of potential candidates.  He said that any person is free to join any party but questioned if a person who joined the party on Sunday should have been included in the panel sent to the party leadership earlier. Bhatt said, “If the PCC president says that the Congress will field a party member then one can say that the party respects its workers as it claims. Is Mahara in a position to maintain that the Congress respects its workers if it fields Kumar?”

It is pertinent to mention here that in the 2022 Assembly elections, BJP’s Chandan Ram Dass had won the seat with 32,211 votes. The then Congress candidate Ranjit Das had come second with 20,070 votes while the then AAP candidate Basant Kumar had come third with 16,109 votes. The Bageshwar Assembly bypoll is being held following the death of cabinet minister Dass earlier this year. While August 17 is the last date for filing nominations by the candidates, voting will be held on September 5. The BJP is likely to field a family member of the late cabinet minister and is confident of securing a thumping victory in the by-election.