Congress and BJP on Sunday announced their candidates for the Kedarnath assembly by-election to be held on November 20 in Uttarakhand. Congress has made former MLA Manoj Rawat its candidate, while the ruling BJP has fielded state Mahila Morcha president Asha Nautiyal. Nautiyal was elected from this seat on BJP ticket in 2002 and 2007. Former journalist, Manoj Rawat had won from Kedarnath in 2017. He lost to BJP’s Shaila Rani Rawat in the 2022 elections.
This seat has become vacant after the death of BJP MLA Shailarani Rawat. Manoj Rawat, who became MLA for the first time from Kedarnath seat in 2017, had to finish third in the 2022 assembly elections. Rawat has entered politics from the field of journalism.
Last date for nomination is 29 October
The last date for filing nomination forms for the by-election is October 29, while the nomination papers will be scrutinized on October 30 and the last date for withdrawal of nominations is November 4. Voting for Kedarnath assembly seat will be held on November 20 and counting of votes will be done on November 23. Officials said that 173 polling stations have been set up in the area for the elections. There are 90,540 voters in the assembly constituency which includes 45,775 women voters.
By-elections are very important
This by-election is considered very important for both the political parties Congress and BJP. Both the parties are laying the political chessboard to defeat each other. After defeating Congress 5-0 in the Lok Sabha elections, BJP had to face defeat in the two assembly by-elections held in the state, Badrinath and Mangalore, seeing that the party does not want to leave any stone unturned this time.
Party workers are constantly among the public
Regarding the by-election, BJP’s National General Secretary and state in-charge of party affairs, Dushyant Gautam said that the party workers are constantly active among the public. He claimed that due to the work done by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami for the public and the ever-increasing confidence of the public in the leadership and guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP will achieve a big victory in Kedarnath.
