Lucknow, May 7 (PTI) The Samajwadi Party on Saturday fielded Manoj Kumar Bhatt as the party's candidate against Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami for the by-election to the Champawat assembly seat.

Samajwadi Party national secretary and chief spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary, in a statement, said party president Akhilesh Yadav has made Manoj Kumar Bhatt alias Lalit Mohan Bhatt the SP candidate for the Champawat constituency in the Uttarakhand assembly by-election.

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He will file his nomination on May 10.

Voting for this by-election will be held on May 31.

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Chaudhary said Bhatt had contested the assembly election from Pithoragarh on a Samajwadi Party ticket. He is also the leader of a taxi union.

The central election committee of the BJP had on Thursday formally declared Uttarakhand CM Dhami as the party candidate for the Champawat seat by-election.

A letter in this regard was issued by BJP national general secretary Arun Singh.

In the recent Uttarakhand assembly elections, the BJP had retained power winning 57 out of 70 seats, but Dhami lost from the Khatima seat.

Dhami is presently not a member of the Legislative Assembly and had to contest by-election within six months of taking oath to continue as the chief minister.

He was sworn in as the chief minister on March 23.

BJP MLA Kailash Gahatodi had resigned from the Champawat seat on April 21, paving way for Dhami to contest the by-election.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)