DEHRADUN: AAP Chief Minister candidate Col (Retd) Ajay Kothiyal would contest state assembly elections due next year from Gangotri state assembly constituency, announced Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday.
Sisodia, who was on a two-day visit in Uttarakhand, said: "It is such an auspicious moment that I announce this. In the past 20 years, the people of Uttarakhand have been cheated by two parties - the Indian National Congress and the BJP. We promise that people will never have to regret. The people of Delhi are the live example of what good work we have done."
The party, which has decided to contest on all 70 state assembly constituencies, has already released a list of 10 candidates earlier this month. Sisodia met the people from business community in Dehradun on Tuesday following his visit to Uttarkashi district, home of Gangotri shrine on Wednesday.
Sisodia promised all round development of Uttarakhand if AAP is voted to power. "The people in Uttarakhand hills have been suffering 20 years of corruption and misrule by the BJP and the Congress. Youth has no job, pregnant women have no medical facilities and people are deprived of their rights. We promise to change this with support of the people of Uttarakhand," added Sisodia.
Interestingly, trends reveal that the party whose candidate has won the Gangotri seat has been able to form the government in the hill state. However, the state has been under de facto two-party system with the Congress and the BJP coming to power alternately. None of the two parties have been able to form consecutive governments following the assembly elections.
A political analyst said: "Ganga is not a river but a focal point of faith of entire Indo-Gangetic plains and Uttarakhand hills as well. Gangotri is the origin of the river Ganga. To field Col Kothiyal from that constituency is a strategically well thought decision to counter the BJP."