The Bharatiya Janata Party announced the names of its candidates for the five parliamentary constituencies in Uttarakhand on Thursday. Sitting MPs Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, Ajay Tamta and Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah have been fielded from Haridwar, Almora-Pithoragarh and Tehri constituencies respectively. While BJP national secretary Tirath Singh Rawat has been fielded from Garhwal constituency, the party’s state president Ajay Bhatt has been fielded from the Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar constituency.
The party candidate from Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar constituency and BJP state president Ajay Bhatt has been an active member of the party since 1980. His family was a supporter of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. He was arrested twice during the Ayodhya Ram temple movement in 1990 and on a third occasion for strongly opposing Mulayam Singh Yadav’s arrival in Ranikhet after the Ayodhya incident. He was elected twice from Ranikhet assembly constituency from 1996 to 2000 and from 2002 to 2007. He also served as a cabinet minister handling various portfolios and later as the leader of opposition in the Vidhan Sabha. Holding the position of the BJP state president since December 31, 2015, it is during this term of his that the party won from 57 out of 70 seats in the Vidhan Sabha elections of 2017.
Tirath Singh Rawat was the BJP state president during 2013-15. Born in 1964 at Sinro in Aswalsyun Patti in Pauri district, he also represented the Chaubattakhal constituency in the Vidhan Sabha from 2012 to 2017. Beginning his political activism in student days, he was state vice president of Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha.
Later in 1997, he was elected as a member of the UP legislative council and later after creation of Uttarakhand state in 2000, be became the state’s first education minister. During his term as the BJP state president, the party candidates won elections to four out of five mayoral positions in addition to party candidates winning from all the five parliamentary constituencies in the 2014 parliamentary polls.
Union minister of State and sitting MP from Almora, Ajay Tamta was active in the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. He was first elected in the district Panchayat in 1996 and later elected to the Assembly from Someshwar in 2007. Having served as a State minister and cabinet minister, he also handled various positions in the party before being elected from Almora parliamentary constituency in 2014 and later being made the Union minister of State for Textiles.
Haridwar MP and former CM Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ was elected thrice from Karnprayag assembly constituency and also served as cabinet minister in Uttar Pradesh before creation of Uttarakhand. He was the first finance minister of newly created Uttarakhand apart from handling other portfolios. Later, he became the fifth CM of Uttarakhand in 2009. Also a writer, Nishank has authored a number of poetry and prose books.
The Tehri MP, Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah is a member of the erstwhile royal family of Tehri. Elected from this constituency to the 15th Lok Sabha in the 2012 by-election, she was re-elected for a second term in 2014. A social worker by profession, she is also member of committee on empowerment of women, standing committee on defence and the governing body of AIIMS, Rishikesh.
