BJP retains power in Uttarakhand, but CM Pushkar Dhami loses

The hilly state has 70 Assembly seats but no outgoing Chief Minister has won since 2012. The Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had failed to break the jinx. On contrary, Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has maintained its winning streak by breaking the myth that no party has ever won the election in the state to retain power for a second consecutive term.

Hyderabad: Then Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won 47 seats out of 70 Assembly seats in Uttarakhand and secured 44.31% votes while Congress had to be satisfied with 19 seats. The vote percentage of Congress stood at 37.95 per cent. While two seats each went to Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and others.

With this victory, the myth of five years of BJP, followed by five years of Congress rule in the state, since its bifurcation in 2000, has also been broken. Earlier, no party got a chance to rule the state for the second time, but now BJP has broken that myth.

Surprisingly, BJP's Pushkar Singh Dhami, Congress's Harish Rawat and Aam Aadmi's Chief Ministerial candidate Captain Ajay Kothiyal lost the elections.

In the Assembly elections, Education Minister Arvind Pandey has broken the myth of the outgoing education minister losing the election.

There is also a myth running about the Gangotri Assembly seat of Uttarkashi district. The party whose MLA wins the election from this seat forms the government, which remained intact this time as well, as current MLA Gopal Singh Rawat has passed away. Consequently, BJP had to field Suresh Chauhan from the seat. Therefore, the myth about the Gangotri seat still remains intact.

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has lost the election from the Khatima seat in the Kumaon division of the state against Congress candidate Bhuvan Kapri thus the government may be formed by any party, but it is certain that sitting CM in Uttarakhand will not be able to form a government to become the head of the state.

Congress veteran and former Chief Minister Harish Rawat have to face defeat in 2022 from the Lalkuan Assembly seat of Nainital district against BJP candidate Dr Mohan Singh Bisht by more than 14,000 votes.

All the ministers of the Dhami government, except CM Dhami and Haridwar Rural candidate Swami Yatheeswaranand, have been able to win from their respective constituencies.

Read:Pushkar Singh Dhami fails to break CM's jinx in Uttarakhand

Out of 41 seats in Garhwal, BJP candidates won 29 seats, while in 2017, BJP had won 34 seats from Garhwal Mandal. Congress on the other side has secured eight seats in Garhwal Mandal followed by the BSP, which has won two seats and the independent candidates have won two seats.

Madan Kaushik, the sitting MLA from the Haridwar seat, has won the Assembly elections for the fifth time.

Out of 10 Assembly seats in the Dehradun district, BJP has won nine seats and Congress has got one seat.

Like the 2017 elections in six assembly seats of the Pauri district, BJP has swept the polls. Out of six Assembly seats in the Tehri district of the Garhwal division, BJP has won five assembly seats. Whereas, Vikram Singh Negi of Congress has won this seat by defeating sitting MLA Vijay Panwar in Pratapnagar.

BJP has captured two of the three Assembly seats in the Uttarkashi district in this election. Sanjay Doval, who left Congress and contested as an independent, has won from Yamunotri by defeating BJP's sitting MLA Kedar Singh Rawat.

BJP candidates have won in both the Assembly seats falling under the Rudraprayag district.

BJP has won two assembly seats out of three Assembly seats in the Chamoli district. Rajendra Singh Bhandari of Congress has defeated sitting MLA Mahendra Bhatt here.

BJP has won 18 seats out of 29 in Kumaon Mandal. However, it was sad for BJP that CM Pushkar Singh Dhami lost from Khatima. Congress has got 10 seats. Congress candidate and former Chief Minister Harish Rawat also lost from Lalkuan seat. In 2017, BJP won 23 seats in Kumaon.

BJP has won five seats in Almora district, the cultural capital of Uttarakhand. The BJP also made a clean sweep in the neighbouring district of Almora, Bageshwar. There are two Assembly seats in this district. Both the seats have gone to BJP's account.

Champawat district BJP and Congress have divided the Assembly seats equally.

The BJP has won five of the six Assembly seats in the Nainital district. The Lalkuan seat of the Nainital district has become the cynosure of all eyes as Congress veteran and former Chief Minister Harish Rawat had contested from that seat. The BJP had fielded Mohan Singh Bisht from Lalkuan. Mohan Singh Bisht defeated Harish Rawat and shattered his dream of becoming the Chief Minister.

Out of the four Assembly seats of Pithoragarh, BJP and Congress have won two seats each.

Congress has won five out of nine seats in Udham Singh Nagar of the Kumaon division and four went to BJP's account.