Pant faces rival for ticket from P’garh

BD Kasniyal

Pithoragarh, October 25

Suresh Joshi, a senior BJP leader, has sought the party ticket from the Pithoragarh Assembly seat, claiming he deserves it in return for his years of efforts to set up a strong base for the party here. Joshi has staked the claim for the ticket at a time when former Pithoragarh MLA Prakash Pant, who was also Water Rersources Minister in the BJP government, is touring villages

Joshi says he has worked from the grass-roots level in the past four years after “Prakash Pant left the Assembly seat for the Lalkuan constituency dur to his political ambitions”. “I have appealed to the party leadership to give me my right. Pant had left Pithoragarh to contest either from Sitarganj or Lalkuan,” says Joshi, a spokesperson for the party.

Meanwhile, Pant says let his fate be decided by the public and the party leadership.

Joshi says he is a party member for the last 30 years. “I got associated with the district BJP in 1984 when Prakash Pant was a government employee. I have been working for the district, regional and state-level organisations of the party. I have revived the party in Pithoragarh after Pant left it in 2012,” he says. Joshi is also ready to work with whosoever gets the party ticket from the constituency, he claims.

Pant says he doesn’t claim the party ticket but will contest from Pithoragarh in case the public and the party ask him to do so. “I have been vocal for the people of the Pithoragarh Assembly constituency even after suffering defeat in 2012. I have been raising the problems of local people which the Congress MLA has failed to resolve,” adds Pant.

He says the BJP has given him the organisational responsibly at various levels and hence he had to remain out of the Assembly constituency for long. Thus creating an impression that he is not in touch with the constituency is not correct. “Even when the party gave me additional responsibilities, I kept in touch with the Pithoragarh Assembly seat through workers, and protested failures of the Congress MLA at the state forums,” he adds.