Uttarakhand polls: Congress turncoats do well, daughters of 2 former CMs avenge defeat of their fathers

By PTI

DEHRADUN: Two Congress turncoats emerged victorious while the daughters of two former chief ministers avenged the defeat of their fathers in the Uttarakhand assembly polls.

Former Uttarakhand Congress president Kishore Upadhyay and former pradesh mahila Congress president Sarita Arya won their respective seats of Tehri and Nainital.

Sarita Arya defeated prominent Dalit leader from Kumaon region Yashpal Arya’s son and sitting Congress MLA Sanjiv Arya from Nainital while Upadhyay defeated Dinesh Dhanai of the Congres by 951 votes from Tehri.

Upadhyay had joined the BJP after he was denied a ticket by the Congress.

Though Congress poll campaign head Harish Rawat himself lost from Lakuwa, his daughter Anupama Rawat won the Haridwar rural seat by defeating cabinet minister Yatishwaranand by 4,472 votes.

Former chief minister and BJP leader Bhuvan Chandrda Khanduri’s daughter Ritu Khanduri Bhushan avenged her father’s humiliation in Kotdwar as she defeated Surendra Singh Negi of the Congress by 3,687 votes.

Khanduri had lost from Kotdwar in 2012 and Harish Rawat from Haridwar rural in 2017 when the two stalwarts had contested from the seats as incumbent chief ministers.

However, Harak Singh Rawat’s daughter-in-Law Anukriti Gusain Rawat lost to sitting MLA Daleep Singh Rawat of the BJP in Lansdowne by 9,868 votes.