Ajay Bhatt wins with margin of over 3 lakh votes
By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 4 Jun: Unlike some other states like UP, where BJP has lost significant ground in the Parliamentary elections, BJP managed to retain all the 5 Lok Sabha seats in Uttarakhand and that too with a huge margin on all the seats. Congress here could not make any dent in BJP’s vote share and, except for some assembly segments, remained behind in majority of the assembly segments in the state. BJP has scored a hattrick in the state. It had won all the 5 seats in the state in 2014 as well as in 2019. In all, 55 candidates were in the fray in Uttarakhand.
In these elections, the BJP secured over 56.80 percent of vote share while Congress could manage only 32.88, which is a huge gap.
Union Minister Ajay Bhatt, contesting from Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar constituency for the second time, managed to secure a huge win with a margin of over 3.4 lakh votes. His win was the first result declared by the Election Commission in the state. Bhatt has defeated Prakash Joshi of Congress. Three-time BJP MP Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah also won handsomely in a surprisingly triangular contest, defeating Jot Singh Gunsola of Congress by a margin of over 2.6 lakh votes. Independent candidate Bobby Panwar also put up a spirited fight, despite the fact that Uttarakhand has not been an easy ground for the independent candidates even in the assembly elections.
It may be recalled that Mala Rajya Laxmi had won this seat for the first time in 2012 in a bypoll which had been held because the incumbent MP from Congress, Vijay Bahuguna had vacated this seat after taking over as the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand. In this poll, Shah had defeated Saket Bahuguna of Congress, despite the fact that Saket Bahuguna was the son of the sitting Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna. This is the fourth straight win for Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah and she remains the lone woman to win a Lok Sabha election from Uttarakhand ever since the formation of the state. Jot Singh Gunsola was not considered a heavyweight against the BJP candidate and the pollsters were already giving her a clear edge. Of course, the victory margin for Shah could have been narrower if not for the independent candidate Bobby Panwar.
On Almora-Pithoragarh constituency, which is the only LS SC constituency in the state, Ajay Tamta scored a hattrick, winning the seat for the third straight time. He defeated Pradeep Tamta of Congress by a huge margin of over 2.26 lakh votes. Ajay Tamta and Pradeep Tamta are considered arch-rivals as they contested against each other for the fourth time. In 2009, the then State cabinet Minister Ajay Tamta was fielded against Pradeep Tamta by the BJP but he had lost. However, he managed to win the 2014 and 2019 elections and has now managed to retain the seat quite comfortably.
BJP had changed its candidates on two seats of the state, namely Pauri (Garhwal) and Haridwar. BJP had replaced sitting MP Tirath Singh Rawat with former Rajya Sabha MP Anil Baluni in Pauri (Garhwal seat) and two-time sitting MP Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ on the Haridwar seat with former CM Trivendra Singh Rawat, who managed to win with a respectable margin of over 80,000 votes against Virender Rawat of Congress who happens to be the son of currently the tallest Congress leader in the state, Harish Rawat. Though, Harish Rawat remained generally confined to the Haridwar constituency in the effort to ensure a win for his son, the efforts went in vain.
On the Pauri seat, Anil Baluni of BJP defeated Ganesh Godiyal of Congress with a big margin of over 1.55 lakh votes. Godiyal, did put up a spirted fight but that was not enough.
While Congress has seen some level of resurgence in several states, it has failed to do so in Uttarakhand, despite the fact that, here, it is generally a straight fight between the BJP and the Congress.
At 7 p.m. this evening, the BJP candidate Ajay Bhatt from Nainital seat had been declared winner by a margin of over 3.33 lakhs against Prakash Joshi of Congress; BJP candidate Ajay Tamta from Almora-Pithoragarh seat was leading against Pradeep Tamta of Congress by a margin of over 2.24 lakhs; BJP candidate Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah from Tehri Lok Sabha seat was leading against Jot Singh Gunsola of Congress by a margin of over 2.64 lakhs; BJP candidate Anil Baluni from Pauri (Garhwal) seat was leading against Ganesh Godiyal of Congress by a margin of over1.54 lakh votes, while BJP candidate Trivendra Singh Rawat from Haridwar seat was leading by a margin of 1.59 lakh votes.
