By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 30 Oct: The BJP and the Congress have begun preparations for the upcoming Parliamentary Elections in Uttarakhand. To begin with, BJP, which has been winning all the five Lok Sabha constituencies for the past two elections, has charted out a detailed schedule for the party leaders who will soon begin holding meetings in every assembly constituency right up to the level of Panna Pramukh and booth level. In addition, the BJP has also decided to place special focus on the assembly constituencies which the party had lost in 2022 assembly elections. For this, every MP has been assigned the responsibility to improve party performance in these constituencies in order to maintain the winning streak in the Parliamentary Election.
The BJP’s senior level national leaders have also begun making regular trips to the state to hold meetings of the party leaders and workers in order not only to motivate them but also to fine tune the micro management of the party in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
On the other hand, the Congress is yet to hold such meetings but has seriously begun mulling on the possible candidates for the coming Parliamentary Elections. It is almost certain that neither the veteran Congress leader Harish Rawat is serious about contesting the Parliamentary Poll from Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar seat, as he had contested in 2019, nor the party now wishes to force Rawat to contest from that seat. Rawat has been lobbying for the party ticket from Haridwar and has been actively engaged in canvassing there. The challenge for him is that, while he continues to remain a popular leader in Haridwar district, he is yet to gain equivalent amount of popularity in Rishikesh, Doiwala and Dharampur assembly seats, which come under the Haridwar Parliamentary constituency.
If sources are to be believed in the Congress, the party now is pressing Yashpal Arya to contest from Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar constituency. Although initially reluctant to contest the parliamentary elections and that too from a general constituency, Arya is now learnt to be having second thoughts in this regard. He is now reportedly ready to fight the LS election from Nainital. As far as the Haridwar seat is confirmed, sources claim that the party is yet to seriously mull on this, though there is a strong feeling within the party that Haridwar constituency has strongest potential among all the five seats in the state for the party. Of course, the current two-time MP Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has become aggressively active in the constituency over the past one year and remains a formidable challenge for the Congress to overcome. Apart from Harish Rawat, there are others too lobbying for this seat and Harak Singh Rawat, who was denied the party ticket in 2022 after his return to the Congress fold, is also lobbying hard to get the LS ticket from this seat. However, he is currently in the midst of a strong controversy regarding illegal felling of trees in Corbett National Park and, in view of the CBI inquiry in this regard, faces an uncertain political future. The previous Congress candidate from Pauri, Manish Khanduri is not that active within the constituency as is the current MP from there, Tirath Singh Rawat. Rawat is spending a considerable time in the constituency though, he did suffer some loss of image when he was replaced as CM of Uttarakhand. As a parliamentarian, he has remained very active.
According to well-placed sources in the BJP, there is some concern about the Tehri Lok Sabha constituency, because, the current MP, Mala Rajyalaxmi Shah, is not easily accessible to the electorate of Tehri Lok Sabha constituency, though she is a regular participant at party functions and meetings. One advantage that the party still has over the Congress on this seat is that Congress does not seem to have a strong candidate to offer. Ex-PCC Chief, ex-Leader of the Opposition and Chakrata MLA Pritam Singh is one option but his limited political activities beyond his own assembly constituency are not very encouraging for the party.
