Other States - Uttaranchal   

Congress, BJP go all out for key seat

C. K. Chandramohan

Polling for the Bajpur Assembly seat in Uttarakhand will be held on Sunday

BAJPUR (UTTARAKHAND): It's a do-or-die situation for both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and opposition Congress to win the Bajpur Assembly seat for which polling will take place on March 25.

Polling in the constituency had had to be postponed last month as the Congress nominee, Janak Raj Sharma, died in a road accident on the eve of the original polling day.

Pinning hopes on securing the party's 35th seat in the 70-member House and thereby reducing its dependency on Independents and Uttarakhand Kranti Dal for support, the ruling BJP has launched a full-fledged campaign to convince the electorate that a victory for its nominee -- Arvind Kumar Pandey -- would bring in much funds and development schemes and perhaps a Minister or Minister-level politician to their doorsteps. Besides the State-level leaders, including the former Chief Minister and party president Bhagat Singh Koshiary, a large number of RSS "pracharaks" are going around from door to door promising a square deal to the State in the next five years. Chief Minister B.C. Khanduri is presently in New Delhi busy making courtesy calls on top leaders including President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a bid to secure goodwill of the Centre.

He has postponed expansion of his Cabinet till after the result of the Bajpur election comes in.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Congress, BJP go all out for key seat

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu