Express News Service
DEHRADUN: The Uttarakhand BJP is all set to bag the only Rajya Sabha seat held by opposition Congress in the state. The ruling party has started the process of finalising the nominee for the seat — currently held by Pradeep Tamta of Congress — which will fall vacant in July.
Madan Kaushik, state BJP president said, “We will have meetings and discussions to finalise the panel of names out of which one will be selected for the Rajya Sabha election nomination. A list of six names will be forwarded by the state unit to the central leadership in the first week of May.”
The list is likely to include two women. Uttarakhand has total eight seats in both House of Parliament — five in Lok Sabha, the Lower House, and three in Rajya Sabha, the Upper House. The names which are in discussion include former chief ministers Trivendra Singh Rawat and Vijay Bahuguna, and Kailash Gehtodi, who recently vacated Champawat Assembly constituency for incumbent Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami.
The women probables in the list include Swaraj Vidwan, a member of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, and Deepti Rawat, national general secretary of Mahila Morcha of the saffron party. At present, the ruling BJP has five Lok Sabha members and two Rajya Sabha members from the hill state. Anil Baluni and Naresh Bansal are the Rajya Sabha MPs from the BJP. The BJP is likely to win the RS seat as the party has majority in the Assembly, with 47 out of 70 seats.
Two former CMs likely to be in listThe names which are in discussion include former chief ministers Trivendra Singh Rawat and Vijay Bahuguna, and Kailash Gehtodi, who recently vacated Champawat Assembly constituency for incumbent Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami
