DEHRADUN: Several prominent local BJP leaders, including three-time mayor Vinod Chamoli , have thrown their hats into the ring to get the saffron party's ticket from Dharmpur constituency of Dehradun, which is one of the six seats on which the party is yet to announce its candidates.Although Dharmpur is considered to be a Congress bastion and senior party leader and minister for forest Dinesh Agarwal represents the seat, the BJP leaders are banking on anti-incumbency votes this time.Sitting Dehradun mayor Chamoli on Wednesday admitted that he has been eyeing Dharmpur seat for the past nine years.BJP's city unit chief Umesh Aggrawal is also a strong contender for the party ticket. While another leader, Bhupinder Kandari, who has been a party worker since 1996, is also eyeing the BJP ticket Chamoli, who has been a part of the BJP for over three decades, claims that becoming an MLA from Dharmpur was his "gateway" to Uttarakhand."I have been the mayor of Dehradun since 2008 and know the area very well. The development work that I started, like waste management plant, are well known to the city people. My work will not stop at Dharmpur as the ultimate aim is to make the whole state corruption free," Chamoli said."People want me to contest election against Congress' Dinesh Aggarwal, who is the sitting MLA of the constituency," he said.In the 2012 Assembly polls, Dinesh Agarwal had defeated BJP's Prakash Suman Dhyani However, the other party contender, Umesh Aggarwal, said that Chamoli was too "arrogant" to become an MLA."I am from the area and have been actively involved in its progress since 1991. In fact, not only the people but also the party members think Chamoli is too arrogant to become an MLA. I have worked alongside the traders and know the entire constituency like the back of my hand," he said.Mahesh Pandey, a BJP leader in Dharmpur, who is also staking claim over the BJP ticket, said: "Apart from Chamoli and Aggarwal, there four more BJP contenders for this seat, which includes me as well as Kandari. However, people of this assembly seat somehow seem to be favouring Chamoli. But Dharmpur is a challenge for the BJP."Elaborating further, Pandey said: "Congress has won the last three elections here, and the demographics of the constituency, which has people from the hills and Muslims in majority, do not work for BJP."Dharmpur has 1,77,087 registered voters. It has 11 wards and 12 gram sabhas.

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