Rawat's wife, Bahuguna's son, first lady DGP among 74 nominees

Political fate of Chief Minister Harish Rawat's wife Renuka, first woman DGP Kanchan Chaudhry Bhattacharya and former chief minister Vijay Bahuguna's son Saket and 71 others will be sealed when the five Lok Sabha seats in Uttarakhand will go to polls tomorrow.
There are about 70 lakh voters in the five seats - Pauri, Tehri, Nainital, Almora (SC) and Haridwar where a straight contest between BJP and Congress appears to be on the cards.
Reflecting the personality-centric nature of the electioneering, BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and Rawat of Congress are emerging as 'poster boys' in the respective party campaigns.

In Haridwar, Rawat's prestige is at stake with his wife Renuka battling it out with former chief minister and BJP nominee Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank. AAP nominee and the country's first woman DGP Bhattacharya is also in the fray from Haridwar, represented in Lok Sabha by Rawat himself in 2009.
Population wise, Haridwar is the largest constituency in Uttarakhand with more than 16 lakh voters. Both Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Modi have held impressive rallies in the district.
The chief minister has taken the entire charge of campaigning for Congress in the state holding back-to-back rallies in different areas on a daily basis.

He is arguing that if poll verdict is not in favour of the party it may adversely affect the stability of his government and will not augur well for the development of the state.

Another interesting contest is in the offing at Tehri Lok Sabha seat where the daughter-in-law of erstwhile Tehri royal family Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah of BJP and Bahuguna's son Saket of Congress are battling it out against each other for the second time.
Saket had lost to Shah in the 2012 bypoll after his father vacated it when he took over the reigns of power in the state.

Rawat, who is campaigning single-handedly for the party elsewhere, has left the onus entirely on his predecessor to canvass for his son.
Bahuguna, who resigned after his leadership skills came under scrutiny in the wake of 2013 natural calamity, is trying to cash in on the popular image his father Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna to give Saket an edge over Shah.