Nainital becomes a hot seat for LS elections

For many top leaders in the state, the road to Parliament is likely to start from Nainital this time.

From former Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh chief minister N D Tiwari to senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Murli Manohar Joshi, all are eying to fight from the prestigious Nainital Lok Sabha seat, thus attracting the attention of poll observors.

BJP sources here said Joshi, in the case of being denied ticket from Varanasi, would like to contest from Nainital or Kanpur. Joshi is facing a rift over who should contest for BJP from the Varanasi parliamentary seat amid reports that BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi also wants to fight from there. Joshi is keen on contesting from Nainital as it his home seat, presently being represented by K C Singh Bawa of the Congress.

On the other hand, Tiwari, who recently accepted his biological son Shekhar after much drama, is showing no signs of fatigue. Sensing that a hung Parliament is also a possibility, Tiwari is also gearing up to contest from Nainital, a seat which he nurtured for decades. In the 1991 elections, Tiwari had claimed he lost the opportunity to become the prime minister because he had lost to BJP’s Balraj Passi.

Source close to Tiwari said he might contest independently from Nainital this time. Interestingly, Samajwadi Party has also offered a ticket to Tiwari in case he chose to contest. But since Samajwadi Party is being strongly opposed in Uttarakhand for its alleged atrocities during the statehood movement in 1990s, Tiwari is unlikely to bite the bait of Samajawadi Party Supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.

BJP leader and former chief minister B S Koshiyari is also serious about contesting from Nainital. Meanwhile, peeved over his name not figuring in the list of probable candidates in the BJP list for Nainital seat, former Union minister Bachi Singh Rawat quit from all posts of the saffron party. Rawat is considered to be a close associate of Joshi. Another BJP leader Balraj Passi, who became a giant killer after defeating Tiwari in 1991, has also thrown his hat into the ring from Nainital.

However, Congress wants to repeat Bawa from Nainital this time under the sitting-getting formula.