NEW DELHI: Congress on Sunday declared its candidates for 63 seats in poll- bound Uttarakhand where chief minister Harish Rawat will contest from two seats - Kichha and Haridwar Rural.
The candidates were decided at a meeting of the party's Central Election Committee (CEC) chaired by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, which met last night.
Assembly elections in the 70-member Uttarakhand Assembly is scheduled to take place on February 15.
Prominent among the candidates are state ministers Indira Hridyesh who will contest from Haldwani, Surendra Singh Negi who will contest from Kotdwar and Dinesh Aggarwal who will contest from Dharampur.
Mantri Prasad Naithani will contest from Deoprayag, Harish Chandra Durgapal from Lalkuwa while Govind Singh Kunjwal will be the Congress candidate from Jageshwar.
The contest in the state is a direct fight between the Congress and the BJP. While Congress is seeking a fresh mandate on the development agenda, the BJP is also using the development plank to stage a
comeback.
Chief minister Harish Rawat is also seeking a fresh mandate on the plea that the Narendra Modi-led central government had dismissed his government till it was restored by the Court.
The BJP had earlier declared its list of candidates for the Uttarakhand elections where many of the Congress turncoats like Harak Singh Rawat, Pradip Batra etc. have found place along with most of their
own sitting MLAs.