Uttarakhand Bharatiya Janata Party president Ajay Bhatt, who was also being considered one of the front-runners to the post of chief minister if the party won the elections, has lost to his old rival Karan Mahara of the Congress in Ranikhet constituency. Mahara, a relative of incumbent Chief Minister Harish Rawat, won the constituency with 19,035 votes, while Bhatt managed to get only 14,054 votes.
Bhatt, also the leader of Opposition, has been associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh since his childhood. Bhatt had played a prominent role in the movement in the 1990s to have Uttarakhand carved out of Uttar Pradesh to become a distinct state. He was elected the Ranikhet legislator in 1996 and was re-elected in the same constituency in the state’s first Assembly elections in 2002.
Bhatt had previously served as the state’s health minister. Mahara had defeated him in the 2007 Assembly elections at Ranikhet, a seat that Bhatt had won back in 2012.
Meanwhile, Kishore Upadhyay, Uttarakhand’s Congress chief, lost to BJP’s Sahdev Singh Pundir in Sahaspur constituency. Pundir had defeated Congress’ Aryendra Sharma in 2012 to win the constituency.
Pundir won the elections with 44,055 votes while Upadhyay won only 25,192 votes.
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