By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 9 Mar: More than 3 weeks after polling was held in Uttarakhand for the assembly elections, the wait for the results is about to be over as counting will be held tomorrow not only in Uttarakhand but in four other states including Uttar Pradesh.
The counting will begin at 8 a.m. tomorrow and the first trends are likely to be available in about an hour. Most assembly constituencies have between 11 and 19 rounds of counting.
The Media Centre at the Secretariat will function as the media centre for the Office of Chief Electoral Officer of Uttarakhand.
As the exit polls that were broadcast in the evening of 7 March after the last phase of polling in UP were split on the results, none of the major parties appear to be fully confident of obtaining a majority. As this publication has pointed out in its report earlier, most of the exit polls on Uttarakhand have been widely off the mark. With the exception of Axis My India and Chanakya Exit polls, all other polls including C Voter had predicted a very close fight between the Congress and BJP in 2017, too, but in reality the BJP had swept the polls, winning 57 out of 70 seats with the ruling party, the Congress, getting marginalised with just 11 seats. Axis My India and Chanakya polls had predicted a clear win for the BJP with more than 45 seats.
This time, too, majority of the polls have again predicted a close fight between the two parties but they are also giving a good vote share to BSP in some seats in Haridwar and US Nagar and to AAP throughout the state. Hence, both the parties are stated to be in touch with some of the rebel candidates of the BJP and the Congress for support in case the parties fall short of a majority.
Both the parties are also holding regular meetings in preparation for the counting and the results.
Senior leaders from Congress, including the observer for the elections, Mohan Prakash, in charge of the party affairs in Uttarakhand Devendra Yadav, special observer MB Patil have already arrived in Dehradun and are holding meetings with the senior party leaders from the state including the PCC Chief, Ganesh Godiyal, Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh and veteran Congress leader Harish Rawat.
In the BJP, election in-charge for Uttarakhand Pralhad Joshi and Party General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargia are in the capital and are holding meetings with Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, Party President Madan Kaushik and surprisingly also with former Union Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’. The grapevine is that in case of the BJP falling short of a majority, Kailash Vijayvargia and Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ may play a crucial role in garnering support of some of the rebels and independent candidates. This time, the BSP is also more hopeful of getting some seats unlike in 2017. It had won a large number of seats in 2002 and 2007 elections but had got reduced to just one seat in 2012 and to nil in 2017. In case of the BJP falling short of the majority and BSP managing a few crucial seats, BJP leaders like Vijayvargia and Nishank could play a significant role in garnering their support. Even at the national level, BSP is currently considered to be more BJP friendly than any other opposition party and, hence, it might prove slightly easier for the BJP as compared to the Congress to get its support.
Both the parties, the BJP and the Congress, are stated to be in touch also with some of the rebel and independent candidates who are believed to be giving a tough fight to the official BJP and the Congress candidates. For example, Nishank and Dhami are reported to have met independent candidate Sanjay Dobhal contesting the Yamunotri constituency, who is reported to be giving a tough fight to the sitting MLA, Kedar Singh Rawat, as well as to the Congress candidate.
