Three-Cornered Contest In Uttarakhand

The Samajwadi Party, which has cornered 275 of the 425 seats for the contest under the United Front banner, at the last minute conceded the Dehradun (city) and Mussoorie seats to the Congress (T).

The Samajwadi Janata Party is not fielding any candidate in the Uttarakhand region.

Congress (T)'s Nav Prabhat, a sitting MLC and son of former Union minister Brahm Dutt, has filed nomination for the Mussoorie seat while the party's Surendra Kumar will contest the Dehra Dun (city) seat.

Several old horses have entered the poll fray for the Mussoorie and Dehradun (city) seats. They are BJPs former MLAs Rajendra Shah and Harbans Kapoor, former city MLA Hira Singh Bisht and district Congress president Dinesh Agarwal, Uttarakhand Kranti Dal's Pitambar Dutt (Mussoorie) and Chhatra Sangharsh Samiti's Ravindra Jugran (Dehradun city), Uttarakhand Kranti Dal's Sushila Baloni (city).

For the Chakrata seat, former Congress MLA Pritam Singh, son of former minister Gulab Singh, BJP's Pandit Shiv Ram and Munna Chauhan have filed their nominations.

Former MLA and Sanyukta Sangharsh Samiti president Ranjit Singh Verma is the only well-known leader of the region who is not contesting.

All preparations are being made to hold peaceful polling according to the directions of the election commission.