Tirath Singh Rawat is the BJP nominee from Pauri Lok Sabha seat. Sitting MP Major genl Khanduri denied ticket

The national secretary of the Bhartiya Janata Party, the former minister in the state BJP govt and former president of Uttarakhand BJP Tirath Singh Rawat has been allocated the party’s ticket from the hot seat of Pauri Garhwal parliamentary constituency finally putting at rest the rumours about the candidature of Colonel Ajay Kothial and retired rear admiral from Gopeshwar Om Prakash Singh Rana.

Tirath Singh Rawat was also denied ticket in the assembly election despite his being the sitting MLA of BJP from Choubattakhaal in order to oblige the present tourism minister of Uttarakhand the saint turned politician Satpal Maharaj.

He had been the state minister of Railways and Finance at the centre and had also represented the Pauri Garhwal parliamentary constituency during the Congress party’s tenure.

Satpal later on joined BJP prior to the state assembly elections alongwith his minister wife n was obliged by side linining Tirath Singh Rawat, sitting MLA n former minister in the state cabinet.

But Tirath Singh showed a great heart and tolerated the injustice meted out to him. He was obliged by the BJP high command n made the national secretary. Rawat continued his party activities in his capacity as the national secretary of BJP.

He was finally rewarded for his patience n being loyal to the party by giving the BJP ticket for Lok Sabha from Pauri Garhwal constituency, currently represented by reited Major General n former union minister n state CM Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri. Rawat is an old n dedicated RSSite n the student of Jehrikhal Inter college, Lansdowne as is the present CM Trivendra Singh Rawat.

There had been lot of speculation in the social media about Colonel Ajay Kothiyal who’s the hero of Kedarnath disaster having contributed tremendously in the resurrection of Kedarnath temple vicinity even during minus degree temperature.

The name of retired rear admiral Om Prakash Singh Rana was also came up from the blue with several newspaper prominently higlighting his candidature.

The Pauri constituency has been in the news these days, particularly after the journalist turned politician son of the BJP MP n former CM Khanduri, Manish Khanduri’s joining of the Congress party at the invitation of the Congress chief Rahul Gandhi at Dehradun on 16th March in a massive public rally.

There are rumours that the Congress party may field Manish Khanduri from the Pauri Lok Sabha constituency.

Manish’s father n the present MP Major general Khanduri has in an interview to Asia News International assured that he is a dedicated worker of the partyhaving no grudge with the party high command and is ready to even campaign against his son if the party asks him to do so.

The Pauri Garhwal Parliamentary constituency represented earlier by stalwarts like late Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna, Chandra Mohan Singh Negi, Satpal Maharaj and Major general Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri is primarily a thakur dominated constituency with 70% rajput voters and 25 % brahmin electorates followed by the SC n minority votes which is almost negligible.

Even the old stalwart n former UP CM n union minister HN Bahuguna has wrested this seat from Congress in 1883/ 84 with a small margin of 28000 votes as caste factor plays its important role in Pauri constitiency.

It also has good number of exservicemen n serving armymen which usually go in favour of BJP.

While the BJP has withdrawn the 75 year old deadline to deny tickets to sitting MPs as was earlier the case when veteral leaders likeL. K. Advani and Dr. Murli Manoha Joshi were deliberately n pre strategically sidelined by PM Modi n Amit Shah, Khanduri too has been denied ticket despite his being a sitting MP and a politiciam with impeccable integrity.

Sources say that he himself has denied the ticket due to overage n abnormal health. But if it was so than why had his son joined Congress n why has he been shunted out of the parliament’s defence committee?