Uttarakhand Assembly Elections 2022 | Congress releases 2nd list; Harish Rawat to contest from Ramnagar

Former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat (File photo)

The Congress party on January 24 released its second list of 11 candidates for the 2022 Uttarakhand assembly elections and fielded former chief minister Harish Rawat from the Ramnagar Assembly constituency. Harish Rawat, who is the party's campaign head in the state, had unsuccessfully contested the Haridwar-Rural and Kichcha assembly seats in the 2017 assembly polls.

The Congress also fielded Anukriti Gusain Rawat from the Lansdowne assembly seat. She is the daughter-in-law of Harak Singh Rawat, who returned to the Congress fold from the BJP on Friday. The party has so far not decided on the candidature of Harak Singh Rawat and is yet to announce candidates for six more seats.

With this, Congress has so far released its candidates for 64 candidates, after the first list of 53 candidates was released on Saturday night. Uttarakhand goes to polls in a single-phase on February 14 to elect its 70-member assembly.

In its first list, the party has fielded Uttarakhand Congress president Ganesh Godiyal from the Srinagar seat and Leader of Opposition in the outgoing assembly Pritam Singh from the Chakrata (ST) constituency. Yashpal Arya, a former Speaker in the state assembly, who had recently joined the Congress after quitting the BJP, has been fielded from his Bajpur-SC constituency.

Arya's son Sanjeev Arya has also been fielded from the Nainital (SC) assembly seat, which he quit after resigning from the BJP along with his father. Sumit Hridayesh, the son of senior Congress leader Indira Hridayesh who died in June last year, has been fielded from Haldwani assembly seat.

The Congress has also retained most of its sitting MLAs in its two lists announced so far.