The Congress has run into rough weather in Uttarakhand’s Nainital-Udhamsingh Nagar Lok Sabha constituency after announcing the name of Prakash Joshi as its nominee.

Angry with the decision, Deepak Balutia, state spokesperson for the Congress,
resigned from the party on Monday.

“I have been a loyal soldier of the Congress for 35 years and have taken up the issues of public interest. I would work for the people independently now. My situation is like a student who prepares well but is barred from writing the examination. How will the student progress if he does not appear in the test?” he wrote in his resignation letter to Kumari Selja, the party’s in-charge for Uttarakhand.

Balutia is the nephew of former chief minister Narayan Dutt Tiwari.

Joshi had served as the general secretary of the National Students’ Union of India and Congress’s national secretary. He was the chief of Congress’s management committee of Uttarakhand during the 2022 Assembly elections.

Joshi is pitted against sitting BJP MP Ajay Bhatt. Bhatt had defeated the Congress’s former chief minister Harish Rawat by over 3 lakh votes in 2019.

Sources in the Congress claimed that the majority of the voters were not happy with the sitting MP because he was not available to them and a united Congress would defeat him.

“There are still people in the constituency who remember Tiwari and want to support Balutia but they are confused now. Let us see how the Congress brings them to vote for Joshi. Bhatt has not done anything for the constituency and seeking votes in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” said a Congress leader.

Sources claimed both the BJP and Congress have their units in each of the 2,472 booths spread in 14 Assembly constituencies there and they were already working in their respective areas. Currently, six Assembly seats are with the Congress.

Bhatt, minister of state for defence and tourism, said: “There is no contest here as the people are prepared to support the BJP and give Modi the third consecutive term at the Centre. We have brought the Uniform Civil Code and anti-copying act to prevent incidents of paper leaks before examinations. We are also trying to prevent migration of youths from the district.”

Joshi said: “The voters are suffering here because of the indifference of the local MP. They want to correct their mistake and the Congress is the best option before them.”