By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 16 Oct: With the announcement of the Kedarnath Assembly constituency byelection by the Election Commission of India, both the BJP and the Congress are expected to announce their candidates soon. Following the announcement of the bypoll for which the polling has been scheduled to be held on 20 November, the Model Code of Conduct has come into force in the Rudrarprayag district under which this constituency lies.
This constituency had fallen vacant after the death of Kedarnath MLA Shaila Rani Rawat on 9 July this year after a prolonged illness. Now, a byelection is to be held for this seat. All political parties have geared up for the Kedarnath seat. Both Congress and BJP are vying with each other to gain maximum traction. However, political pundits assert that a lot more is at the stake for the ruling party, the BJP, particularly in the wake of the results in two assembly byelections held recently, both of which the Congress had won. After the win of Congress in Badrinath and Manglaur assembly constituencies, the morale of the party is high, and it is trying to keep up the momentum by trying to ensure another win in Kedarnath. However, they also point out that Badrinath was previously held by Congress while the Manglaur constituency was held by the BSP. BJP did not hold either of these seats, in sharp contrast to Kedarnath, which is considered a strong citadel of BJP, which has held the seat mostly after the formation of the state with the exception of 2017 when the first-time candidate of Congress, Manoj Rawat had won.
None of the parties want to spare any effort to win the seat. While Congress had taken out a ‘Kedarnath Bachao Yatra’ from Haridwar to Kedarnath and had also levelled the allegation against the government of theft of gold from Kedarnath temple. It had also claimed that the BJP Government had played with the sanctity of Kedarnath temple by allowing construction of another Kedarnath temple in Delhi.
On the other hand, the BJP organisation may not have done anything publicly, yet, but the party and the RSS workers are busy doing groundwork in the constituency. Added to this are the high number of development projects and works announced in the constituency by the Pushkar Singh Dhami Government. Even on Tuesday, development works worth Rs 13.8 crores were sanctioned by the government hours before the announcement of the byelection.
The way announcements are being made at the government level shows that the government is making the election in Kedarnath a matter of prestige. One announcement after another has been made by the government, to show to the people that it is fully committed to rapid development in the constituency.
Given the fact that BJP has held this constituency mostly after the formation of the state, the election has become a question of prestige. The two by-elections held recently in Manglaur and Badrinath were rather disappointing for BJP, as it lost both. In view of these defeats, the BJP does not wish to spare any effort to win this byelection. The party has put five ministers on duty along with BJP state general secretary Aditya Kothari for the Kedarnath assembly elections. Additionally, a large number of party workers and the RSS volunteers have also been engaged to reach as many as voters as possible, something that was missing in the last parliamentary election even when the BJP had managed to win all the 5 Lok Sabha seats.
State BJP President Mahendra Bhatt claims that the people of Kedarnath and the entire Uttarakhand know how much work the BJP, both at the state and central levels, has done for the reconstruction of Kedarnath and the surrounding area. He also claimed that what happened to Congress in Haryana will happen in the Kedarnath assembly election also. He reminds that the government is providing every facility needed by the devotees and local citizens in Kedarnath.
So far, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has made 39 announcements for the constituency and has gone to the extent of issuing an appeal to the people of Kedarnath to consider him as the local MLA till the election is held. Fourteen new announcements were made for the Kedarnath region earlier this month and, yesterday, a few more project were officially approved. By making 39 announcements within a short period since the constituency fell vacant, the government has tried its best to woo the voters of the Kedarnath region. In addition, the CM has also announced a package of reconstruction and restoration of road and the pedestrian tracks to Kedarnath.
So far there is no indication of the candidates who will be contesting the byelection on behalf of the BJP and the Congress. After the demise of its MLA Shaila Rani Rawat, the BJP has to find a new face for the constituency. The party sources claim that the party is also considering the candidature of Aishwarya Rawat, daughter of Shaila Rani Rawat to gain sympathy votes. However other names under consideration include former Kedarnath MLA Asha Nautiyal, Kuldeep Rawat and Chandi Prasad Bhatt. For the last 15 days, BJP has been conducting different surveys in this entire area to know in whose favour the atmosphere and the public are.
At the same time, strong differences have emerged on the candidature of former MLA Manoj Rawat within the Congress. Besides this, the insiders admit that the disappointing performance of Congress in recently held assembly elections in Haryana has also turned out to be a dampener for the party workers. Previously, besides the name of Manoj Rawat, Harak Singh Rawat was also being discussed but he has not shown any overt inclination to contest the byelection. Now that the byelection has been announced, both the parties are likely to announce their candidates shortly.
