Dhanaulti MLA’s supporters protest ticket to Rajnath’s relative

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, January 18

Supporters of sitting Dhanaulti MLA Mahaveer Singh Rangar today criticised the BJP for denying him the ticket to fight the Assembly elections. They laid siege to the BJP office here demanding rethink of the grant of ticket to Narayan Singh Rana.

“Our MLA has a clean image and he has been working tirelessly in the constituency in the hope that he will get a second term. But the party denied him the ticket at the eleventh hour,” rued Mahinder Singh, 82-year-old resident of Dhanaulti, who also accompanied Rangar’s supporters.

BJP workers say Narayan Singh Rana, whom the BJP has fielded from Dhanaulti at the behest of his relative Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, was a stranger to the constituency. “How will we face people and coax them to vote for a person who was never seen in Dhanaulti. It is Rangar who has done all the work in the last five years,” said Prithvi Singh Rawat, general secretary of the BJP (Dhanaulti) unit. They also submitted a memorandum addressed to BJP president Ajay Bhatt.

Incensed Rangar supporters raised slogans against the BJP leadership and reached the office rooftop to make their point. BJP women workers held a musical protest to drum up support for Mayor Vinod Chamoli, who is in race for the ticket from the Dharampur Assembly seat, that the party is yet to announce.

“We have come here in support of Chamoli. He is a strong candidate and should not be sidelined,” said Gita Nautiyal, a councillor. BJP leader Umesh Agarwal is also demanding ticket from Dharampur. Sources claim that Chamoli’s supporters gathered following a rumour that the party has cleared Agarwal’s name from Dharampur.

Rana gets a rousing welcome

Meanwhile, Narayan Singh Rana received a rousing welcome on reaching Nainbagh today.

Rana thanked party leaders for reposing faith in him from Dhanaulti and appealed to the party workers to unite under one banner and strengthen the hands of Narendra Modi and the party. He promised Dhanaulti residents that if elected he would work for the development of the area.