Uttarakhand: Whom will Devbhoomi bless?

Congress considered itself strong in Kumaon, Harish Rawat's turf while BJP considered itself strong in Garhwal even though it laid emphasis on preparations on Kumaon as well. There are seven districts in the Garhwal division and six in Kumaon. Of 70 seats in the Uttarakhand assembly, 41 seats fall in the Garhwal and the remaining 29 seats in the Kumaon division.

Dehradun: The counting of votes of the Uttarakhand assembly elections 2022 is scheduled for March 10. Administratively, the state of Uttarakhand is divided into two parts-Garhwal and Kumaon division. The focus of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress was visibly more towards the Kumaon division despite the fact that more assembly seats are in the Garhwal division.

Congress considered itself strong in Kumaon, Harish Rawat's turf while BJP considered itself strong in Garhwal even though it laid emphasis on preparations on Kumaon as well. There are seven districts in the Garhwal division and six in Kumaon. Of 70 seats in the Uttarakhand assembly, 41 seats fall in the Garhwal and the remaining 29 seats in the Kumaon division.

The population in Uttarakhand is 83% Hindu, 14% Muslim and 2.4% Sikh. In the Garhwal division, out of 41 assembly seats, the Muslim and Dalit alliance is very important for winning the elections in about 12 assembly seats. There are 13 assembly seats reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC) and 2 assembly seats for Scheduled Tribes (ST) in the state assembly. Out of 13 reserved seats for SCs, eight assembly seats are in the Garhwal division while the reserved ST seat is also in the Garhwal division.

The composition of Sikh voters in the state is about 2.4% in which 0.9% of voters are in Garhwal. The Cantonment assembly seat of the Garhwal division has the maximum number of Sikh voters.

There are about 32% Thakurs and 24% Brahmin voters in Garhwal. A total of 65% of Garhwal BJP candidates are Thakurs and Brahmins. The Congress has also fielded the same percentage of Thakur and Brahmin caste leaders as its candidates. While in Kumaon, 40 per cent of the Hindu population are Thakurs, 25 per cent Brahmins, 19 per cent Scheduled Castes and less than 3 per cent Scheduled Tribes.

Regionally, the Garhwal division has Chardhams(Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath) for which Congress has given the slogan of 'Chardham Char Kaam' while the BJP runs on the line of Hindutva.

Earlier, in the 2017 assembly elections, out of 70 seats, BJP won 57 seats with a thumping majority. Meanwhile, in 41 seats of Garhwal division, BJP won 34 seats while Congress was able to win only 6 seats in Garhwal division and one seat was won by Dhanaulti independent candidate Pritam Panwar. However, Pritam Panwar joined BJP and contested from Dhanaulti on the party ticket. Out of 29 seats in Kumaon, the BJP won 23 seats.

BJP leader Trivendra Singh Rawat took the oath as the Chief Minister in 2017, but he was removed from the post of CM before the termination of his term. Consequently, BJP declared Tirath Singh Rawat as CM, who took the office for a few months only and finally, five months before the elections, BJP made Pushkar Singh Dhami the CM and fought the election under the leadership of CM Dhami.

Since its bifurcation from Uttar Pradesh on November 9, 2000, Uttarakhand had only one Chief Minister who completed his term in the office. The Congress leader Narayan Dutt Tiwari served as the only CM to fulfil his term between 2002 and 2007.

Uttarakhand Congress state president Ganesh Godiyal has admitted that in the last assembly elections, there was a tremendous jump in the vote share of the BJP, but he claimed that this time it will be just the opposite. Godiyal said that the vote share of the BJP will fall considerably.

From Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Home Minister Amit Shah, the saffron leaders were seen asking for votes at the doorsteps of the public. The opposition too did not leave any stone unturned for the campaigning of elections.

BJP held a total of 695 election rallies in Uttarakhand, both virtual and physical. Prime Minister Modi held a total of 151 election rallies in Uttarakhand. Of these, 148 rallies were made virtual during the Corona period. The Prime Minister addressed the people face-to-face in Uttarakhand through three physical rallies.

Meanwhile, BJP's central leaders including Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Anurag Thakur, Ajay Bhatt, JP Nadda and Prahlad Joshi attended a total of 367 rallies, among which 87 rallies were virtual and 280 physical rallies.

Congress on the other hand had fielded 30-star campaigners in the electoral fray of Uttarakhand. These star campaigners held more than 200 rallies. Harish Rawat held virtual rallies in all 70 assembly constituencies while Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi held both virtual and physical rallies in the state.

Rahul Gandhi visited the state twice and addressed public meetings in Kichha, Haridwar, Mangalore and Jageshwar which were broadcast virtually in all 70 assembly seats. Priyanka Gandhi visited Uttarakhand twice and addressed the public in Dehradun, Khatima, Haldwani and Srinagar.

Jyoti Prasad Gairola, co-convener of BJP Election Management Committee, said that election rallies in the state and 43 audio bridge public meetings were started simultaneously at 109 places in 70 assembly seats.

“Even though the election was being fought in the entire state, it administered from the state office that which leader will come and sit on the stage and which leader will speak on the stage for how many minutes and for how many seconds, all this was being controlled through online live streaming from the state office," he said.

Puneet Mittal, who was specially given the responsibility of monitoring, said that during the election, the progress report was discussed and the strategy for the next day was prepared by the core team of BJP including general secretary Ajay, general secretary Kuldeep Kumar and Raju Bhandari, vice president Jyoti Gairola, treasurer Puneet Mittal and office chief Kaustubhanand Joshi.

The Congress management team, in-charge Devendra Yadav, along with Gaurav Vallabh, Deepika Pandey, Mathura Dutt Joshi, Rajiv Mehrishi took the work of election management into their hands. The media in-charge Rajiv Mehrishi said that all their big leaders were contesting the elections.