Uttarakhand: Kedarnath by-election: BJP-Congress candidates are rife, who will be the candidate? Challenge for candidate selection remains

With the announcement of Kedarnath assembly by-election, the heartbeat of the ticket claimants has also increased. Now, the decision of who will celebrate Diwali and who will have to wait from both the parties will also be taken soon. Along with this, a round of meetings has started regarding the election strategy. The seat is vacant due to the death of Kedarnath MLA Shailarani Rawat on the night of July 9 this year. After waiting for about two and a half months, now the Election Commission has announced the by-election. With this, the code of conduct has come into force. Voting is to be held in the assembly on November 20. BJP has been camping in the assembly constituency for the last two months regarding the by-election.

BJP won three times and Congress twice

After the formation of Uttarakhand state, assembly elections were held for the first time in the state in the year 2002. Then, BJP had won the Kedarnath assembly seat. Asha Nautiyal was elected MLA from BJP, she defeated Shailarani Rawat, who was the candidate from Congress then. In 2007, BJP expressed faith in Asha and made her the candidate, while Congress fielded Kunwar Singh Negi but could not win.

In 2012, BJP made Asha its candidate for the third time in a row, while Congress once again made Shailrani Rawat its candidate and she hoisted the flag of Congress in Kedarnath assembly for the first time and also increased the vote bank by 29 percent, but she did not like the MLA post much and in October 2016, she rebelled against the then Harish Rawat government and joined BJP.

Asha Nautiyal rebelled and entered the fray as an independent

In 2017, when BJP gave her a ticket from Kedarnath assembly, former MLA Asha Nautiyal rebelled and entered the fray as an independent, due to which Manoj Rawat from Congress reached the assembly for the first time. The situation was such that while BJP slipped to fourth place in its stronghold, Asha Nautiyal was suspended from the party.

Shailrani became MLA for the second time in 2022

In the assembly elections held in the year 2022, BJP once again expressed confidence in Shailrani Rawat and made her the candidate. During this time, she lived up to the trust of the party and won as well as captured the lost vote bank. During her two and a half year tenure, she kept battling illness. Despite this, whenever she got time, she prominently placed the problems of the area in front of the state and central government.