Nominations open for Dhumakot Assemby byelection

Dehradun, Aug 3 (UNI) Filing of nominations for Dhumakot Assembly byelection in Uttarakhand opened today with the returning officer issuing the notification.

However, no nominations were filed today.

August 10 is the last date of filing nomination.

While Chief Minister Maj Gen(Retd) Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri is the candidate of ruling BJP, Congress is yet to declare its candidate.

Mr Khanduri, who is scheduled to file his nomination on August 7, must get elected to the Assembly within six months of being sworn-in as chief minister.

The Dhumakot seat had fallen vacant with its Congress member Lt Gen(Retd) Tej Pal Singh Rawat resigning to join BJP.

Though the Congress has not yet declared its candidate, it has decided to fight it out against Chief Minister.

The BJP has been campaigning for the election with development of Dhumakot as its key agenda with most of the senior BJP leaders having visited the constituency to campaign for Mr Khanduri.

Meanwhile, Congress has flayed the BJP for following enticement policy. It also had fixed allegation against the saffron party of blatant violation of Model Code of Conduct.

Regional political party Uttarakhand Kranti Dal, which is supporting the BJP in state assembly, has also announced to support the chief minister in keeping with its alliance obligations.

Chief Election Officer of Uttarakhand N Ravishankar said in an official release that the scrutiny of the nomination would take place on August 11 with the last date of withdrawal of monination being August 13.

The bypoll is slated for August 29 while counting is on September 2.

The election process would be over by September 3, he said.

UNI