Half-a-dozen contenders for lone Rajya Sabha seat in Uttarakhand

With about half-a-dozen contenders for the lone Rajya Sabha seat going to polls in Uttarakhand on March 23, the ruling BJP may find it difficult to pick its nominee.
Though victory of the BJP nominee looks certain with the party enjoying a huge majority in the state assembly, choosing one candidate over another will not be easy, political observers here feel. The BJP has 57 MLAs in the 70-member Assembly.
Nearly half-a-dozen names are doing the rounds as probables for the seat including former chief minister Vijay Bahuguna, state BJP president Ajay Bhatt, in-charge of the party affairs in the state Shyam Jaju and party national spokesman Anil Baluni.

Bahuguna is credited with engineering a split in the Congress which saw many party stalwarts joining the BJP at the time of the assembly election last year, whereas Bhatt is the man under whose leadership the party swept to power in the state.
Shyam Jaju, who is in charge of the partys affairs in the state, is also credited with piloting it to its emphatic victory in the last polls having overseen the rebellion against Harish Rawat by his own MLAs and all of them later joining the BJP and emerging victorious on the partys ticket, a factor widely viewed as the one which led to the Congresss total electoral rout.

Anil Balunis contention is also considered strong because of his son of the soil image and his proximity to central leaders as the partys national spokesman.

Other names doing the rounds as contenders for the seat are national secretary and former state unit chief Tirath Singh Rawat , Uttarakhand statehood agitationist Sushila Baluni and industrialist Anil Goel.
However, the party holds its cards close to its chest when asked about ongoing speculation in the media on the issue, saying the choice of a candidate is the sole prerogative of the partys central leadership.
The partys central leadership alone can decide who the partys candidate will be. I can only say whoever is chosen as the partys candidate, our victory is certain, state BJP president Ajay Bhatt said when asked at a press conference here recently to comment on it.

Jaju was here on March 3 to hold a closed-door meeting with party leaders to take their feedback on the forthcoming civic polls and the Rajya Sabha election.
The Rajya Sabha seat where election is being held on March 23 falls vacant on April 2 when Congress MP Mahendra Singh Mahras tenure ends. There are three Rajya Sabha seats in Uttarakhand, all of which belong to the Congress at present.