New Delhi, (Samajweekly) Uttarakhand is likely to see an interesting contest between the BJP and the Congress in the upcoming Assembly elections – scheduled to be held in early 2022.
This time, the Delhi ruling AAP will also be contesting the state elections, however it is expected that the key contest will be primarily between the BJP and the Congress.
The main electoral issues in the hill state are migration, employment, health, education and public transport system among others.
On March 9, 2021, the state Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat resigned from his post and was taken over by Tirath Singh Rawat. Later within a few months, he also had to resign from his post and now Pushkar Singh Dhami is the Chief Minister of the state.
In the 2017 assembly elections in Uttarakhand, BJP had won 56 seats, while the Congress got 11 seats.
However, despite getting a strong majority, the BJP had to make frequent changes of leadership in the state. This is the reason that in less than 5 years, the BJP-ruled Uttarakhand has seen three Chief Ministers.
Citing ‘instability’ within the BJP, the Congress believes that it is in a ‘strong position’ this time. The responsibility of preparing for the assembly elections in the state and ‘winning’ this election is in the hands of Harish Rawat and some other senior leaders.
At the same time, BJP has posted convenor and assembly in-charge in 70 assembly constituencies. Making an edge over all other parties in the preparations for the elections, the BJP has started finalising the candidates.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, as part of the campaigning, is highlighting various ‘developmental works’ done by the government during last five years. For this, the Dhami government will be taking out ‘Vikas Rath’ across districts of the state. Further to promote the policies, developmental works and schemes of the state government, party will also take help of street plays and LED screens across 300 locations in the state.
On the other hand, the AAP says that this time it will contest all the 70 seats in the elections.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has promised that if the AAP comes to power, 300 units of electricity will be given free to every household in the state. It (AAP) is also gearing up to fight the elections with full strength.
Like the AAP, previously also there was Uttarakhand Kranti Dal that has been contesting the polls as a third force apart from Congress and BJP. Uttarakhand Kranti Dal was the party that started the movement for a separate hill state, but still it could not become an alternative to Congress or BJP.
Similarly, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) had also emerged successful on seats, but as a third party, it could not achieve much in the state politics. This time too, the BSP has announced to contest the assembly elections on all 70 seats in Uttarakhand.
Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party (SP) has also announced to contest on all the seats in the state. But the road for the SP here is even more difficult. Akhilesh Yadav’s led SP had won the Haridwar Lok Sabha seat in 2004 but since then the party has not won any seat.
