BJP pygmies Congress in Uttarakhand, bucks trend to retain power

Bucking the trend, the BJP on Friday returned to power in Uttarakhand for a consecutive second term albeit with lesser number of seats than 2017 and its Chief Minister Pushkar Dhami losing the electoral battle even as it thrashed Congress’ hopes for a revival in the hill state where its mascot Harish Rawat also bit the dust.

BJP won 47 seats, down from 56 in 2017 while reducing the Congress to 19, which is a rise from 11 five years ago. BSP and independents won two seats each. While BJP saw a decrease in vote share from 46.51% to 44.33%, Congress registered an increase from 33.49% to 37.91%.

Almost all exit polls had predicted a close contest with the BJP having an edge but the actual results showed a comfortable win for the BJP but with a lesser vote-share while the Congress increased its vote share and number of seats.

It also emphasised the assertions by some political analysts that when the BJP was winning comfortably in Uttar Pradesh, the results would not have gone the other way in neighbouring Uttarakhand.

The BJP victory came despite internal bickerings and governance issues prompting change of Chief Ministers but the sheen was taken away with the defeat of Dhami in Khatima at the hands of Congress’ Bhuwan C Kapri by a margin of 6,579 votes. However, the decision to change Trivendra Rawat with Tirath Singh Rawat and then Dhami helped the BJP to tide over anti-incumbency.

Congress was expecting to dethrone the BJP riding on the history of Uttarakhand elections where its voters never returned a party to power for a consecutive term. It was believed that anti-incumbency would help it but the intense infighting within the party with former Chief Minister Harish Rawat on one side and Legislature Party leader Pritam Singh on the other led to the party losing the plot.

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Harish Rawat even threatened to retire from politics alleging that he was not getting support from the party in the run-up to the party and its reluctance to announce him as the Chief Ministerial post. The central leadership brought peace but nothing much improved as the leaders took a lot of time in finalising candidates.

Harish Rawat, who at 73 knew this was his last shot for the Chief Minister post, himself lost from Lalkuwa by 17,527 votes, a repeat of 2017 when he lost from two seats, while his party colleagues Yashpal Arya scraped through from Bajpur while Ritam Singh won from Chakrata by 9,434 votes.

However, Harish Rawat’s daughter Anupama won from Haridwar Rural by 4,472 votes but Arya’s son Sanjeev lost to BJP’s Sarita Arya — who quit Congress after the party denied her ticket — by 7,881 votes. The Aryas, who had quit rebelling against Harish Rawat, had returned to the Congress recently.

However, Harak Singh Rawat’s daughter-in-law Anukriti lost from Lansdowne by 6,038 votes. Harak Rawat also returned to the party but Harish Rawat has agreed to take him on the condition that he would not be given a ticket to contest. Harak Rawat then settled for a ticket for his daughter-in-law.

BJP’s Ritu Khanduri, who is former Chief Minister B C Khanduri’s daughter and a sitting MLA, also won from Kotwar by a margin of 3,486 votes.

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