Dehradun Apr 19 PTI Days after communal tension erupted in a village in Uttarakhands Haridwar opposition Congress on Tuesday held a Sarva dharma sambhav prarthana sabha at the Gandhi Park here to promote religious harmony and peaceIn a noble step Hindu Muslim and Christian priests took part in the prayer assembly along with a host of Congress leaders and prayed for peace and prosperity everywhereThe prayer assembly was attended by a large number of Congress leaders including several disgruntled party MLAs who were said to have been unhappy with the recent revamp of the partys state unitMLAs Pritam Singh Vikram Singh Negi and Rajendra Bhandari who had skipped formal assumption of offices by the newly appointed PCC president Karan Mahra and Leader of Opposition in Uttarakhand Assembly Yashpal Arya also attended the prayer assembly Former chief minister Harish Rawat who also attended the meet with his MLA daughter Anupama Rawat appealed to people to live like brothers which has been the tradition of the state Communal tension had broken out in Dada Jalalpur village in Bhagwanpur area of Haridwar district on Saturday when a Hanuman Jayanti procession was pelted with stones PTI ALM SRY

Dehradun Apr 18 PTI Two more people have been arrested in connection with the violence in Dada Jalalpur village of Bhagwanpur area in Uttarakhand where the situation is returning to normal police said on MondayA Hanuman Jayanti procession was pelted with stones while it was crossing through the village near Roorkee in Haridwar district Saturday evening leaving four persons injured they saidBhagwanpur Police Station SHO P D Bhatt said two more accused were arrested on Monday in connection with the incident taking the total number of arrests to 11Meanwhile a delegation of Congress leaders including PCC president Karan Mahra Leader of Opposition in Uttarakhand Assembly Yashpal Arya and former chief minister Harish Rawat met Governor Lt Gen retd Gurmit SinghThe delegation accused organisations affiliated with the BJP of creating an atmosphere of fear in the state and the police of taking one-sided action It also demanded an impartial inquiry into the incidentAccording to police the situation is gradually returning to normal in Dada Jalalpur and the deployment of police force in the village has also been reducedSHO Bhatt said FIRs have been registered against 13 named persons and 40 unidentified people under various IPC sectionsPTI ALM SRY

Dehradun (Uttarakhand) [India], April 10 (ANI): Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Sunday appointed Karan Mahara as the president of Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee, as per the official statement of AICC.

Dehradun Mar 26 PTI BJP MLA Ritu Khanduri the daughter of former chief minister B C Khanduri was elected unopposed as the first woman speaker of the Uttarakhand Assembly on Saturday The announcement about her election was made by pro-tem speaker Banshidhar Bhagat Her election to the post was a foregone conclusion as the main opposition Congress chose to stay out of contest Ritu Khanduri won from Kotdwar by defeating former minister S S Negi by more than 3000 votes She had won her maiden assembly election from the Yamkeshwar constituency in 2017 Before taking a plunge into politics she taught at a private university in Noida for several years In her maiden address to MLAs soon after her election Khanduri exhorted first-time legislators to utilise five years of their tenure in learning about legislative procedures and participate enthusiastically in debates in the House on matters of public interest Congratulating her Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami dwelt on her academic achievements and said her assumption of office as the first woman speaker of the state was an acknowledgement of the valuable contribution made by women in Uttarakhands movement for statehood It is a historic day for us We got our first woman speaker in you today It is an honour for the entire women population of the state who played a stellar role in the formation of Uttarakhand Dhami said Opposition members Pritam Singh and Yashpal Arya also congratulated her saying they were confident she would carry forward her fathers legacy of probity in public life and lay the foundations of healthy legislative practices Singh also expressed hope that under her stewardship the House will pass a resolution granting 33 per cent reservation to women in the state legislature PTI ALM SMN

Dehradun Mar 22 PTI Having decided to retain Pushkar Singh Dhami as the chief minister the BJP has now moved on to the next job at hand cabinet formation in UttarakhandAs the party leaders are busy picking up MLAs for ministerial berths the media continues to speculate about the look of Dhamis new cabinet which is likely to be a combination of old and new facesAt least three new inductions in Dhamis new cabinet are a certainty As Harak Singh Rawat and Yashpal Arya who were members of the last cabinet joined the Congress ahead of the Assembly polls and former minister Swami Yatishwaranand lost his seat the party needs to pick up three new faces to fill the slots that were occupied by themProbables who could be brought in for the three slots include former chief minister Vijay Bahugunas son and Sitarganj MLA Saurav Bahugua former chief minister Bhuvan Chandra Khanduris daughter and Kotdwar MLA Ritu Khanduri Bhushan and Dilip Singh Rawat who scored an emphatic win over Harak Singh Rawats daughter-in-law Anukriti Gusain in LansdowneAll of them will make their debut as ministers if inducted into Dhamis new cabinetOld faces likely to be retained are Satpal Maharaj Dhan Singh Rawat Rekha Arya and Arvind Pandey who were all members of Dhamis last cabinetDhami is all set to take oath as the 12th chief minister of the hill state along with his cabinet at a grand ceremony on the Parade Ground here on Wednesday afternoon in the presence of the top BJP brass including Prime Minister Narendra Modi Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president JP Nadda PTI ALM RC

Dehradun (Uttarakhand) [India], March 17 (ANI): Amid growing blame game within the Uttarakhand unit of the Congress, the party's manifesto committee chairman for just concluded state polls Navprabhat lent his support to the former Chief Minister Harish Rawat, saying that it is not right to level allegations of sale of tickets and posts after the poll results.

Dehradun Feb 21 PTI Former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat on Monday claimed his Congress party will win 45-48 seats in the assembly polls this time owing to a strong anti-incumbency wave Election to the 70-member assembly in Uttarakhand was held on February 14 and the results are to be announced on March 10 If we compare the 2002 assembly polls with the 2022 assembly polls we are in a better position this time In 2002 we won the polls on the strength of our positivity while the anti-incumbency against the BJP government at that time was not as strong as this time Rawat said In comparison to 2002 there is more positivity in Congress in 2022 and so is the anti-incumbency against the BJP So we are confident of winning 45-48 seats and forming the government he said The Congress general secretary said in 2002 everyone was in doubt about the partys victory but he personally was sure it would win at least 40 seats In 2002 the Congress had formed the government winning 36 out of a total of 70 seats Rawat was the partys state unit president at that time and the election was fought under his leadership Rawat said when Congress president Sonia Gandhi saw the impressive turnout at her rallies in Bageshwar she had agreed with him that the party was going to form the government in the state The 2002 assembly poll results in Uttarakhand had even surprised the then deputy prime minister Lal Krishna Advani he said Rawat said Advani had invited him to tea to explain how he managed to win the polls In the 30-member interim assembly before the year 2002 the BJP had 23 seats and the Congress two In the 2012 assembly polls the Congress formed the government again but with the help of independents as it was four seats short of the magic figure Yashpal Arya was the partys state unit chief at the time of 2012 assembly polls PTI DPT ALM SMN SMN

Haldwani (Uttarakhand) [India], February 15 (ANI): A day after polling for Assembly elections in Uttarakhand concluded, former chief minister and senior Congress leader Harish Rawat exuded confidence that his party will form the government in the hill state winning 48 seats and took a jibe at the Bharatiya Janata Party saying Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami saved BJP's self-respect otherwise it would have suffered a massive defeat.

Dehradun (Uttarakhand) [India], February 14 (ANI): Uttarakhand Congress leader Yashpal Arya, while casting his vote in Kaladhungi assembly constituency on Monday said Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is better as opposition, not good enough for running the government.

Dehradun (Uttarakhand) [India], February 1 (ANI): Daughters of two former chief ministers have been fielded in the Uttarakhand Assembly elections, apparently in an attempt to reclaim the legacy of their fathers.