Haridwar is hottest seat to go on poll in U’khand

Dehradun, 18 Apr: All is set for polling to be held tomorrow in Uttarakhand on all the five Lok Sabha constituencies. There are a total of 83,21,207 voters on five Lok Sabha seats in thirteen districts of the state. Of this, 43,08,904 are male and 40,12,006 are female voters. In addition, 297 transgender voters will also cast their votes in the Lok Sabha elections. There are a total of 79,965 disabled and 1,45,202 elderly voters (Age 85 years or more) in the state, for whom the Election Commission has made special arrangements to bring them to the polling booth. There are 93,357 young voters who will be voting for the first time. A total of 11,729 polling stations have been set up in the state to ensure a smooth conduct of the polling. A total of 55 candidates are trying their luck on five Lok Sabha seats.

Here is a look at each constituency and some background about each constituency:

BJP has chosen to replace two time MP and former CM Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank this time from Haridwar with another former CM Trivendra Singh Rawat. Trivendra Singh Rawat is in a direct contest with another former CM Harish Rawat’s son Virender Rawat. Haridwar remains the hottest seat in Uttarakhand with high political stakes for not one but three former Chief Ministers namely RP Nishank, Trivendra Singh Rawat and Harish Rawat. While Nishank and Harish Rawat are not contesting themselves but the outcome is expected to certainly impact their political future. Though hailing from Almora, Harish Rawat has nurtured Haridwar district for a long time having won this parliamentary seat in 2009 while his wife Renuka Rawat lost in 2014. He however managed to get Congress ticket for his daughter Anupama Rawat who won her assembly election from Haridwar Rural in 2022. However, sources claim that she is unhappy with the Congress ticket to her brother Virender Rawat.

The stakes are high for former Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat of BJP who comes in picture in electoral arena after being sidelined for almost 3 years. A win can ensure a good political career ahead for him while a loss may completely end his political innings. Similarly, outgoing MP RP Nishank may not be contesting election this time but he is too smart a political leader to lay lying low down for a long time. He may start lobbying for a Rajya Sabha ticket when it does fall vacant. He has been seen actively campaigning for the BJP candidate Trivendra Singh Rawat.

This seat may mainly witness a direct contest between BJP and Congress but impact of the presence of independent MLA from Khanpur Umesh Kumar and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Maulana Jamil Ahmed on the net outcome can’t be negated. Congress is heavily dependent on Muslim votes but the candidature of Maulana Jamil Ahmed of BSP can make a dent in the votebank of Congress. Traditionally, Haridwar has been a productive constituency for BSP as far as assembly elections are concerned.

In the last Lok Sabha elections, former Union Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank got 6,65,674 votes while Congress got 4,06,945 votes while BSP had got 1,73,528 votes. BJP’s hopes for a big win depends on heavy turnout of Hindu voters from here. A total of 14 candidates are trying their luck from Haridwar.

This Lok Sabha seat has been held for long by the Tehri royal family. This time also BJP has made Maharani Mala Rajya Laxmi its candidate for the third straight time The Tehri royal family has won the Lok Sabha elections from here 12 times. Last time in 2019, she had got 5,65,333 votes, Congress’s Pritam Singh could get only 2,64,747 votes. Congress has given ticket to Jot Singh Gunsola here, who is considered to be a lightweight candidate. BJP is considering this to be among the safest seats for itself also because of the respect commanded among the electorate for the Tehri Royal family. Of course, the political battle, otherwise considered to be a direct fight between BJP and Congress has been queered somewhat by the presence of independent candidate Bobby Panwar, who represents the Unemployed Youth Union and is creating some waves in the constituency. The battle on a Parliamentary constituency is another matter however.

This time, BJP has put up former Rajya Sabha MP Anil Baluni as its candidate on Garhwal (Pauri) Lok Sabha constituency, and he has replaced outgoing MP and another former CM Tirath Singh Rawat. Baluni is considered quite close to BJP’s top leaders Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. That is one reason, why this constituency saw rallies of many top national leaders of BJP including Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and UP CM Yogi Adityanath who also originally hails from this constituency. He is facing a direct fight with Congress’s Ganesh Godiyal. Godiyal is giving Baluni a good run for his money by fighting a spirited battle. However, this constituency has been a traditional bastion of BJP. In 2019, BJP got 5,06,980 votes while Congress’s Manish Khanduri (who is now in BJP) got 2,04,311 votes. Apart from Khanduri, local Congress MLA from Badrinath Rajendra Bhandari and three former MLAs have also joined BJP. A total of 13 candidates are contesting elections on this constituency.

Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt is trying his luck for the second time on Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar seat. He is contesting against Prakash Joshi of Congress who had lost the assembly elections twice also on Congress ticket. In the past, big leaders like Krishna Chandra Pant, Narayan Dutt Tiwari, Bhagat Singh Koshyari have represented this constituency in Lok Sabha. A total of ten candidates are in the fray here. Last time, Ajay Bhatt had defeated Congress veteran Harish Rawat by a huge margin of 3,39,096 votes, BJP had got 7,72,195 votes here. This time Congress has fielded a Brahmin candidate instead of Thakur and this is now a fight between two Brahmin candidates. From here too, many Congress leaders have left the party and joined BJP. BSP has made Akhtar Ali its candidate here. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has held a huge public meeting here and the BJP hopes to draw full mileage out of his rally here.

Here once again an election conflict is taking place between former Union Minister Ajay Tamta of Bharatiya Janata Party and former Rajya Sabha member of Congress Pradeep Tamta. This seat is reserved for Scheduled Caste. This time, a total of 7 candidates are in the fray. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP’s Ajay Tamta got 4,44,651 votes and Congress got 2,11,665 votes. On this Lok Sabha seat representing Almora, Pithoragarh, Champawat and Bageshwar districts, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has held several rallies here while some months ago before the declaration of the elections, PM Modi had addressed a public meeting in Pithoragarh which was a hugely attended rally. Ajay Tamta is hoping that the public enthusiasm for PM Modi can romp him home once again.