Uttarakhand Polls 2017: Tough fight in the offing in Dharmapur

It will not be a cakewalk for three-time Congress MLA and Uttarakhand Sports and Forest Minister Dinesh Agarwal to win Dharampur constituency in Dehradun this poll season with BJP fielding two-time mayor Vinod Chamoli from the seat.

The BJP ticket to Chamoli has not gone down well with the supporters of his own party leader Umesh Aggarwal, who was viewed as a strong contender for Dharampur constituency, a Congress bastion.

Chamoli, however, is seen campaigning hard to garner votes and if he succeeds in coaxing Umesh’s supporters, who had allegedly vandalised the party state office after ticket distribution, it would pose a big challenge to Congress leader Dinesh Agarwal.

Agarwal on his part has trashed the candidature of Chamoli, saying he does not have a “single achievement” to his credit. Chamoli is the mayor of Dehradun Municipal Corporation since 2008.

“There is no challenge from Chamoli. I wonder on what basis he got the ticket to fight against me. I challenge him to give his one achievement in Dehradun as a two-time mayor.

“I want to put across to him only one question. What is his achievement? What has he given to Dehradun as a mayor and as Municipality chairman? I think he has given the tag of the dirtiest city in India to Dehradun. He has no policy, no programme and no vision,” he said.

Hitting back at Dinesh, Chamoli said, “Let him say that it is easy for him to win the election. Let the election gets over, everything will be out. There is a huge anti-incumbency in the state as well as in Dharampur constituency.

“As a mayor, I have a long list of achievements, including establishment of bus shelters, flyovers, widening of roads and increasing sewerage connection to 80 per cent of the area from just 20 per cent,” he said.

He said the election outcome would be in favour of BJP as “aam admi stands with the Modi government” and the people want “change” as Congress government in the state is “engulfed in corruption”.