By ARUN PRATAP SINGH
RUDRAPRAYAG, 18 Nov: Campaigning has ended for the Kedarnath Assembly by-election at 5 pm on Monday. Polling will be held on November 20 and counting will be held on November 23. Result is expected to be declared on the same day. There are six candidates in fray but according to the political analysts, the main contest seems to be between BJP’s Asha Nautiyal and Congress candidate Manoj Rawat. While Asha Nautiyal is a two-time former MLA from this constituency, Manoj Rawat is a one-time former MLA from the same constituency. According to the Election Commission, arrangements to hold the elections peacefully and smoothly in the constituency are well underway. The administration has also completed its schedules for polling and counting of votes.
Other candidates in fray are Ashutosh Bhandari from UKD and independent candidates Tribhuvan Chauhan, RP Singh and Pradeep Rohan Budhiya. It may be recalled that the seat had fallen vacant on July 9 this year due to the death of the incumbent Kedarnath Assembly MLA Shaila Rani Rawat. The Election Commission of India (ECI) had issued the notification on October 15 for the by-election. In all, six candidates had filed their nominations under the nomination process between October 22-29. The election campaign for the by-poll lasted for 17 days. On behalf of the ruling party, the campaign was led by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami himself. Besides him, BJP State president Mahendra Bhatt, at least six Cabinet ministers including Satpal Maharaj, Subodh Uniyal, Dhan Singh Rawat and Saurabh Bahuguna also campaigned very actively for the party candidate Asha Nautiyal. Former Chief Minister and former Union Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank also participated in the campaign as Asha Nautiyal is considered to be his protégé in politics.
On behalf of Congress, almost all senior leaders including the PCC Chief Karan Mahara, former Chief Minister Harish Rawat, leader of the Opposition Yashpal Arya, former PCC chief Ganesh Godiyal campaigned actively and aggressively. It may be recalled that the Congress candidate Manoj Rawat is considered to be a protégé of Harish Rawat in politics. A large section of the party leaders were allegedly opposed to the candidature of Manoj Rawat, who was the party MLA from here from 2017 to 2022 but had lost to Shaila Rani Rawat of BJP in 2022. Shaila Rani Rawat herself had been a Congress MLA from here from 2012 till 2017 but had switched her loyalties to BJP prior to 2017 elections but as a BJP candidate, she had lost the election in 2017 to Manoj Rawat. However, she retained as the party candidature in 2022 when she managed to secure good win against Manoj Rawat.
The Kedarnath Assembly by-election is being considered important in many ways, in particular for the ruling party which had lost the previous Assembly by-elections recently in Manglaur and Badrinath. This time too, there was a possibility of rebellion in the party as Shaila Rani Rawat’s daughter Aishwarya Rawat too had sought the party ticket. She was considered to be a strong contender because of the sympathy factor in favour of Shaila Rani Rawat. In addition, Kuldeep Rawat, a former independent candidate from here who had managed to gain second spot in 2022 Assembly election ahead of Manoj Rawat of Congress has also recently joined the BJP and had also staked claim to the the party ticket from Kedarnath. The Congress was expecting at least one of them to rebel and contest as rebel candidates but Pushkar Singh Dhami has handled the rebellion in the Kedarnath by-election with prudence, managing to convince both of the contestants not to rebel and instead campaign for the official party candidate Asha Nautiyal. In past few days of the campaigning, these two leaders were also seen actively campaigning for the BJP candidate and as such, the party can expect some positive influence from the effort of these two.
Assistant District Election Officer Dheeraj Kumar shared that a total of 90,875 voters will get to exercise their franchise in the Kedarnath assembly by-election. 173 polling booths have been set up for voting. Today, polling parties have left for remotely located Gaundar, Ransi, and Chilond polling stations, while the remaining parties will be leaving for their respective polling stations on Tuesday. He said that all preparations have been completed for peaceful voting.
