By ARUN PRATAP SINGH
DEHRADUN, 23 Nov: The BJP, which won the Kedarnath Assembly seat, set a new record this time. Under the leadership of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, the BJP candidate bagged more votes on this seat as compared to any other past election held since the formation of the state. Dhami put in all his strength to win this Assembly seat, which had become a question of prestige. He campaigned himself along with five Cabinet ministers of his government and managed to not only retain the prestige of the party but also to give a befitting reply to negative campaigning of the Opposition. One crucial feature of this byelection has been that while the BJP focussed on development and other local issues, the Congress campaign centred around unproven allegations of alleged theft of gold from Kedarnath shrine and other negative issues.
One look at the votes bagged by BJP candidates in the elections held so far after the formation of the state, shows that the voter turnout has been higher than before. In the first general election of the state in 2002, BJP won this seat with the candidate getting 13,080 votes. BJP also won in the 2007 elections with the candidate securing 16,971 votes. In the 2012 elections, Congress won with the candidate getting 19,960 votes. In the 2017 elections, Congress won again with the candidate getting only 13,906 votes. In the 2022 general elections, BJP captured the seat with its candidate bagging 21,886 votes. In this by-election, BJP retained its hold on this seat, and the winning candidate Asha Nautiyal received the highest number of 23,814 votes, more than any winning candidate so far.
After the formation of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre in 2014, there has been a qualitative change in the mood of Indian voters. Voters have now started evaluating governments based on their performance. Whether it was the return of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre in 2019 and 2024 or the return of the BJP government in Uttarakhand and UP in 2022 and recently in Haryana, the voters lent their support to the incumbent government and the anti-incumbency factor failed. Even in Kedarnath, the voters preferred to lend support to the incumbent party instead of choosing the Opposition.
For this by-election, Congress completely focused on negative issues. Congress left no stone unturned in propagating about alleged gold theft from Kedarnath without much substance. Congress also made the construction of the Kedarnath temple in Delhi an issue, but the voters of Kedarnath looked past this issue. The work of pilgrimage reconstruction and restoration of Kedarnath is being done under the supervision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Dhami.
After losing the election once, Shaila Rani Rawat was given a ticket from here by the BJP again, and she became an MLA in 2022. After her death, BJP once again returned to Asha Nautiyal and at the same time, also ensured that the daughter of Shaila Rani Rawat Aishwarya and the Independent candidate Kuldeep Rawat who joined BJP do not turn rebellious and continuously engaged them in campaigning. The support given by the Brahmin pilgrim priests of the Kedarnath Panda community also contributed to Asha Nautiyal’s victory, for which Chief Minister made personal efforts. Not only this, during the recent landslides during the Yatra season, the successful rescue of thousands of pilgrims from Kedarnath trek route also worked in favour of the BJP.
This resonated with the voters, and they rejected the Congress. During the counting of votes, it seemed at one point that Independent candidate Tribhuvan Singh had overtaken Manoj Rawat of Congress but after the initial few rounds, Congress candidate Manoj Rawat overtook Tribhuvan Singh. On this seat of Kedarnath Assembly, the Sangh Parivar also gathered with full force and worked hard to ensure the BJP candidate’s victory.
