Sepoy vs General in Dhumkot by-election

Dehra Dun, Aug 5 (UNI) The August 29 Dhumakot Uttarakand assembly by-election, will be a contest between a retired sepoy and a retired General.

Chief Minister Maj Gen (retd) Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri is the BJP candidate while the main opposition Congress has fielded Sepoy (retd) Surendra Negi for the seat.

State Congress Chief Harish Rawat today officially declared Negi as the party's candidate. Negi would file his nomination tomorrow and Maj Gen Khanduri the next day.

The Dhumkot seat, generally considered as a Congress pocket borough, fell vacant following the resignation of then Congress member Lt Gen (retd) T P S Rawat, who later joined the BJP.

There are, in all, 50744 voters, including 23697 males and 27047 females, in the Dhumakot constituency.

The BJP has made overall development as its election plank, whereas the Congress feels that the BJP has followed enticement policy to break away the former's MLAs.

''We are not at all in a mood to allow the BJP a walkover,'' Mr Rawat told reporters in the presence of Leader of Opposition and Congress MLA Harak Singh Rawat and Congress MP from Tehri Vijay Bahuguna.

Mr Rawat said an unanimous decision in favour of Negi was taken by the party leadership. He said the BJP government in its five-month tenure did not live up to the people's expectation.

He said instead the governemnt stopped all those developmental projects initiated by previous Congress government.''The people of Dhumakot constituency seek an answer to this failure,'' Mr Rawat said.

Leader of Opposition Harak Singh Rawat said Dhumakot was totally a pro-Congress constituency and the people there were already miffed over the BJP luring one of their MLAs. '' People there are looking for retaliation,'' he exhorted, adding that people were enthusiastic about Negi's candidature.

He asserted that the Congress was contesting the election not merely as a formality but to win.

UNI