Sunday, 20 AUGUST 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN

The Congress party has released a list of 40 star campaigners for the Bageshwar Assembly by -election. The list was released by general secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) KC Venugopal on Saturday.  The names of in-charge of Uttarakhand Congress Devendra Yadav, the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) Karan Mahara, the leader of opposition (LoP) in  State assembly Yashpal Arya, former chief minister Harish Rawat, former PCC presidents Pritam Singh, Ganesh Godiyal, senior leaders Harak Singh Rawat, Qazi Nizamuddin and Pradeep Tamta are in the list of star  campaigners. The list also includes MLAs Manoj Tiwari, Rajendra Singh Bhandari, Madan Singh Bisht, Tilakraj Behed, Mamta Rakesh, Harish Dhami, Furkan Ahmed, Mayukh Mehar, Adesh Chauhan, Vikram Singh Negi, Bhuwan  Chandra Kapri, Gopal Rana, Khushal Singh Adhikari, Virendra Jati, Ravi Bahadur, Sumit Hridayesh and Anupama Rawat. Former MP Mahendra Singh Mahara, former speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal, ministers Surendra Singh Negi and Shoorveer Singh Sajwan, Ranjit Rawat, Jeet Ram, Mahendra Singh Pal, Lalit Farswan, Prakash Joshi, president of ex servicemen cell Darshan Lal, women Congress Jyoti Rautela, Youth Congress president Sumittar Bhullar, Hema Purohit and Vikas Negi also figure in the list.

  Notwithstanding the fact that the ruling party has won 13 out of 14 by-elections held in the State so far the Uttarakhand Congress is confident that its candidate is in a strong position in Bageshwar. The PCC president Karan Mahara and LoP Yashpal Arya are camping in the constituency and other senior leaders of the party including former CM Harish Rawat will campaign extensively in the by-election. The BJP has made Parvati Dass, the widow of late Chandan Ram Dass as its candidate while Congress has put its bet on Basant Kumar for the by-election. Kumar had contested the assembly election of 2022 on AAP ticket and secured more than 16,000 votes.  In the assembly election held in the year 2022, Chandan Ram Dasss of BJP won from the Bageshwar reserved assembly seat by defeating his nearest rival  Ranjit Das of Congress party. The voting for the by-election will be held on September 5 and the counting of votes will be done on September 8 and the result will be declared on the same day.