Home Dehradun BJP performed well in most assembly segments in Parliamentary polls

BJP performed well in most assembly segments in Parliamentary polls

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By Arun Pratap Singh

Dehradun, 5 Jun: BJP has been dominating the political battleground in Uttarakhand since 2014. Although, the vote share of BJP did go down slightly in the just concluded parliamentary polls in the state, it has consolidated its position in majority of the assembly constituencies.

The total vote share of BJP in the 2014 general elections was 55.3 percent as against 34 percent of the Congress, while in 2019, it managed to secure a vote share of 61 percent as against the vote share of just 31 percent secured by the Congress. In 2024, the BJP’s vote share has shown a decline, and it could only manage a total vote share 56.81 percent. Congress has managed to improve its vote share from 31.4 to just 32.8 percent and the rest of the votes have gone to other candidates, most of them independents.

As far as assembly segments are concerned, Haridwar Lok Sabha seat remains the only parliamentary where the Congress could ensure a lead in 6 assembly constituencies, while the BJP still managed to gain a lead in 8 assembly segments. In Haridwar constituency, Congress candidate, Virender Singh Rawat, son of veteran Congress leader and former CM Harish Rawat, did manage to lead the BJP in Laksar, Piran Kaliyar, Jwalapur, Bhagwanpur, Jhabreda and Manglaur.  Of them, Manglaur and Laksar are assembly constituencies that are currently represented by BSP MLAs. Manglaur assembly constituency is currently vacant due to the death of incumbent MLA Sarwat Karim Ansari of the BSP. Three-time ex-MLA Qazi Nizamuddin managed to secure a good lead of around 23,000 votes from this segment for the Congress candidate Virender Rawat and is hoping to win the bypoll likely to be held from there. Though BSP did manage to win 2 seats in 2022 Assembly constituencies, its vote share has declined, both, in Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts, where it had a considerable mass base in the past. Virender Singh Rawat, however, lagged behind the BJP in the Haridwar Rural Assembly segment, a constituency which is represented by his sister, Anupama Rawat. Here he lagged behind Trivendra Singh Rawat of BJP by over 4,500 votes. In all the three assembly segments of this Parliamentary seat which are part of Dehradun district, namely Doiwala, Rishikesh and Dharampur, the BJP’s vote share was almost double that of the Congress.

In case of Pauri (Garhwal) Lok Sabha seat, though BJP candidate Anil Baluni was contesting Lok Sabha Elections for the first time, he managed to secure good leads in all the 14 assembly segments. This seat was considered a tough contest. Congress candidate Ganesh Godiyal, despite a spirited fight, could not manage to lead in any of the segments including his own assembly constituency of Srinagar.

In the Tehri Parliamentary Constituency, it can be stated that Tehri’s Royal family maintains its hold. The party lost here even in the segments where it had won in the assembly elections. Interesting, however is the fact that this constituency has 7 assembly constituencies from Dehradun district and, with the exception of Mussoorie, Chakrata, none other of these constituencies are considered to be politically influenced by the Tehri Royal family. Raipur, Dehradun Cantt, Rajpur are part of Dehradun city and have been traditional bastions of the BJP. Here, according to the political pundits, the only factor which worked in these elections was the Modi factor. The Modi factor worked also in other local assembly segments like Sahaspur, Vikasnagar and Mussoorie.

In Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar constituency, BJP’s Ajay Bhatt managed to secure a lead of over 3.4 lakh votes and led in 13 out of 14 assembly segments against Prakash Joshi. BJP also led in assembly segments like Haldwani which are represented by Congress in the state assembly. Jaspur remained the only assembly segment where the Congress candidate managed to secure a wafer thin lead. It may be interesting to remind here that Prakash Joshi hails from Haldwani while Ajay Bhatt hails from Almora district. One more interesting fact is that the BJP candidate led by a huge margin of around 25,000 votes also in Khatima where the Congress candidate Bhuwan Kapri had defeated the sitting CM Pushkar Singh Dhami in the 2022 assembly elections.

In Almora-Pithoragarh constituency, it was a third straight win for BJP’s Ajay Tamta. Tamta has won against his arch-rival Pradeep Tamta of Congress by a margin of over 2.4 lakhs. It has been a comfortable win for Ajay Tamta. He led in all the 14 assembly segments of the constituencies, his opponent Pradeep Tamta could not lead in any.

The results indicate that, in Uttarakhand, the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami’s remains at the peak level. CM Dhami’s popularity is to be tested soon during the coming Municipal elections and two assembly bypolls.