On Thursday, the BJP has rolled out the first list of 59 candidates for the polls to the 70-member Uttarakhand Assembly. CM Pushkar Singh Dhami will be competing from his current constituency Khatima. Union minister Pralhad Joshi said that the released list of candidates includes names of five women. He said that the party will be contesting the polls based on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision for Uttarakhand.
In 2017, the party won 57 seats and around around 10 sitting MLAs dropped. State BJP president Madan Kaushik will be competing again from Haridwar. Names of ministers like Satpal Maharaj and Dhan Singh Rawat are also present in the list. 15 candidates belong to Brahmin community and 3 candidates are from the trading community, said Joshi. Joshi and BJP general secretary Arun Singh said, "the party will win again with a big mandate and claimed that the state saw development under its rule after facing “step-motherly" treatment during the Congress-led UPA dispensation of 10 years."