By PTI
DEHRADUN: Former Uttarakhand Congress president Kishore Upadhyay on Thursday joined the BJP ahead of the state assembly polls.
Kishore joined the BJP in the presence of Union minister and the party’s election in-charge for Uttarakhand, Pralhad Joshi and other senior leaders.
According to media reports, the BJP which has not yet announced its candidate for Tehri may field Upadhyay from there.
Upadhyay had won the Tehri seat in 2002 and 2007 polls.
The Congress has expelled Upadhyay from the party for six years for “anti-party” activities.
The development comes after former BJP MLA from Narendra Nagar Om Gopal Rawat on Wednesday joined the Congress along with his supporters here in the presence of state party president Ganesh Godiyal and other leaders.
Welcoming him into the party fold, Godiyal said his entry will strengthen the Congress.
Om Gopal Rawat was disappointed over denial of ticket to him by the BJP from the Narendra Nagar seat from where sitting MLA and Cabinet minister Subodh Uniyal has been fielded for the Assembly polls.
The BJP on Wednesday announced its second list with nine candidates for Uttarakhand assembly polls fielding former state chief minister BC Khanduri’s daughter Ritu Bhushan Khanduri from Kotdwar.
Khanduri, the sitting MLA from Yamkeshwar, was not part of the party’s first list which carried the names of 59 candidates.
With the latest list, the BJP has announced candidates for 68 out of a total of 70 assembly seats in the state.
The two seats for which the party is yet to announce its candidates are Doiwala and Tehri.
Doiwala was won by former chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat in 2017.
Rawat had recently written to party president JP Nadda expressing his unwillingness to contest the polls so he could focus on working for the party’s second consecutive victory at the hustings on February 14.
The party is looking for a suitable candidate for Tehri, which is also held by a BJP MLA.
