The political fate of several BJP heavyweights, including Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and state unit president Madan Kaushik as 70 assembly seats of Uttarakhand spread over 13 districts will go to the polls on Monday.

Important candidates whose fate is to be decided in these polls include ministers in the Dhami cabinet: Satpal Maharaj, Subodh Uniyal, Arvind Pandey, Dhan Singh Rawat and Rekha Arya.

Chief Minister Dhami is contesting from his current assembly constituency of Khatima while four-time MLA and state BJP president Kaushik is contesting from Haridwar. Minister Dhan Singh Rawat is contesting from Srinagar and pitted against state Congress president Ganesh Godiyal.

In Haridwar (rural) Assembly seats senior BJP leader and minister in the Dhami government Yatishwarananda is trying his luck for another term against Congress candidate Anupama Rawat, daughter of former Chief Minister Harish Rawat. Uttarakhand Minister Subodh Uniyal and Ganesh Joshi are contesting from Narendra Nagar and Mussoorie Assembly seats respectively.

Speaker Premchand Aggarwal is contesting from Rishikesh Assembly constituency. Other prominent names are ministers Satpal Maharaj from Chaubattakhal, Bansidhar Bhagat from Kaladhungi, Pradeep Batra from Roorkee, and Bishan Singh Chufal from Didihat.

Star campaigners of BJP, Congress, Aam Aadmi Party and Samajwadi Party including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Gopal Rai and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati held a slew of rallies to seek votes for their candidates during electioneering which was held for the most part amid Covid restrictions.

Seeking a second consecutive term in office, the BJP stalwarts have warned voters against the Congress’s “policy of appeasement” and asked for votes for the party highlighting the big road, rail and air connectivity projects underway in the state and the ones in the pipeline besides the reconstruction of Kedarnath over the past five years.

Uniform Civil Code and Muslim ‘Vote Bank’

Amid ongoing row over the right to wear hijab by Muslim students, the high-pitched campaign witnessed political parties ending with Chief Minister Dhami promising implementation of Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in Uttarakhand after winning Assembly polls.

Uttarakhand Congress vice-president Akil Ahmad claimed former Chief Minister Harish Rawat had assured of Muslim university would be set up in Uttarakhand. However, the Congress and former CM Rawat have denied Ahmad’s claims.

The Uttarakhand BJP claims that the Congress is trying to polarise the election by talking about Muslim University. BJP Rajya Sabha member from Uttarakhand Naresh Bansal had said that Congress is treating the Muslim community as ‘vote bank’ and by promising a university they are trying to appease the minority community.

The state BJP have sought votes in the name of a double-engine government for the state’s uninterrupted development over the next five years while Congress which is trying to gain lost ground after its rout at the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2017 assembly polls has raised the issues of inflation, unemployment and change of chief ministers in quick succession by the party in power to put spokes in its wheels.

Uttarakhand Politics

The BJP had won 57 out of a total of 70 seats in Uttarakhand in the last assembly polls limiting Congress to just 11. Two seats had gone to Independents. Traditionally, the politics of Uttarakhand has been largely bi-polar with Congress and BJP governing the state alternately, but this time the AAP is also in the running fielding its candidates from all the 70 assembly constituencies in the state.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has asked for votes accusing successive Congress and BJP governments in the state of not fulfilling the aspirations of people that had led to the creation of Uttarakhand in 2000. It has also offered a slew of freebies including free electricity up to 300 units to every household, Rs 1,000 per month to every woman above 18 years, jobs to every household and an unemployment allowance of Rs 5,000 per month to them until they get the job to lure voters.

Over 81 lakh voters all set to decide the fate of 632 candidates, including 152 independents, in the fray. Polling will begin at 8 am and conclude at 6 pm in a single phase.

There are a total of 81,72,173 voters in the state and 11,697 polling booths spread over 8,624 locations, said Chief Electoral Officer Saujanya. For the first time 101 all-women polling booths named ‘Sakhi’ polling booths have been set up in the state. All polling officials at these booths will be women, she said, adding this has been done to encourage women’s participation in the polling process. Similarly, six polling booths to be manned by persons with disabilities have also been set up, she said. The presiding officers and polling personnel at such booths will be differently abled.

(With inputs from agencies)

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