Dehradun : The veteran Congress leader, who once aspired to be the Prime Minister of the country, Narayan Dutt Tiwari, has been reduced to the ignominy of not having been able to have two of his hand-picked candidates of the Congress candidate win from their respective assembly segments in the recently concluded Uttarakhand vidhan sabha elections.
Both the candidates of the former union minister, Uttarakhand chief minister and Andhra governor lost. While Tiwari’s nephew Manish Tiwari lost from the Gadarpur assembly segment, his former secretary and close confidante, Aryandra Sharma lost from the Sahaspur assembly segment.
While Manish Tiwari could manage just 10042 votes and finish fourth, Aryandra Sharma finished second having polled over 20,500 votes.
The irony is that Manish contested from Gadarpur in Kumaon division, the home turf of Narain Dutt Tewari, which he had nursed as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and later Uttarakhand, when it was carved out of the hill areas of U P.
The loss of both his hand-picked candidates will come as a rude jolt to the senior Congress leaders, as Tewari had made himself available to be the chief minister of Uttarakhand yet again, albeit for a period of two years.
It is another story that even the Congress has not got a simple majority and may have to resort to some horse trading to reach the magical figure of 36 in a House of 70.
In fact, of late, the veteran Congress leader had suddenly become active and could be seen moving out to the problematic areas of the city and assuring the people that he would have the problem resolved immediately after the election results, when the Congress came to power.
He also recently had a Holi Milan function at his residence here to show that his popularity was still in tact.
A journalist with over 40 years of experience, Jagdish Bhatt was Editor, Hill Post (Uttarakhand).
Jagdish had worked with India’s leading English dailies, which include Times of India, Indian Express, Pioneer and several other reputed publications. A highly acclaimed journalist, he was a recipient of many awards
Jagdish Bhatt, aged 72, breathed his last on 28th August 2021 at his Dehradun residence.
