BJP has won all five lok Sabha seats of the State. By winning all five seats, BJP has balanced its 5-0 defeat in the last general election-2009. Meanwhile, BJP has demanded that Harish Rawat should resign from the post of chief minister on moral grounds because the Congress has lost all five seats.
With this declaration it has proven that people, who give mandate to the party in State assembly election,defeat the ruling party in general election.Meanwhile, to defuse the crisis, CM Harish Rawat was seen having review meeting of dairy department on Friday. For instance, during general election the State had the BJP government led by Maj Gen Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri and BJP had lost all five lok Sabha seats of the State. Similarly Harish Rawat-led Congress Government is in power in Uttarakhand and Congress has lost all five seats of the State.
Interestingly, during general election-2009, the then State Chief Minister Maj Gen Khanduri had canvassed in all five seats and remaining state leaders were sidelined then. Ultimately BJP lost all seats and Gen Khanduri had to take moral responsibility for this defeat.Similarly, Congress fought general election-2014 under the leadership of Chief Minister Harish Rawat because other senior leaders were seen reluctant to participate in campaigning. Few of the cabinet ministers sought helicopters to participate in campaigning.
Ultimately, Congress lost all five seats and now Chief Minister Rawat will have to face similar pressure within the party and from the opposition as well.
Congress has tried its best to diffuse the disaster, which had devastated the state in June 2013 and opposition within Congress managed to put pressure over the party high command to replace the CM; otherwise party would lose all five seats in the general election, by replacing Vijay Bahuguna with Harish Rawat on February 1, 2014.
Then Gen Khanduri had tried his best to ensure victory of then BJP candidate lt Gen (retd) TPS Rawat, who had vacated his assembly seat Dhumakot to ensure Khanduri's entry as member of Vidhan Sabha,contesting election from Garhwal seat against the then Congress leader Satpal Maharaj.
later lt Gen Rawat lost the election to Maharaj and is now out of media glare. Similarly, chief minister Harish Rawat, who had shifted his base to Haridwar from Almora due to delimitation and had won Haridwar lok Sabha seat by record margin in 2009, had put his all energy to ensure his wife Renuka Rawat's victory from Haridwar constituency this time.
Due to this Haridwar seat had become a hot seat among all five seats of the state. His winning streak was challenged by BJP ex-CM Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank who won the seat by 1,77,822 votes. In Haridwar, Dr Nishank got 592320 votes including postal ballot, while Renuka Rawat received mere 414498 votes, including postal ballots.
In Garhwal constituency BJP candidate Maj Gen Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri, who had lost assembly election from Kotdwar, has bagged 405690 votes, while Congress candidate and cabinet minister Harak Singh Rawat received 221164 votes. It means Khanduri defeated his opponent by 1,84,526 votes, the third highest victory margin among five constituencies. In Tehri Garhwal, sitting MP Mala Rajya laxmi Shah, who had become MP by defeating Congress candidate and then chief minister Vijay Bahuguna's son Saket Bahuguna in Tehri lok Sabha by poll-2012, has polled 446733 votes including postal ballots, while Congress candidate Saket Bahuguna got 254230 votes losing to Shah by 192503 votes, the second highest margin in the State.
Ex CM Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, who was sent to Rajya Sabha in 2008, polled 636769 votes and his opponent Congress candidate KC Singh 'Baba' got 352052 votes in Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar. It means Koshiyari defeated two times sitting MP Baba by 284,717 votes, which is highest margin in Uttarakhand.
In Almora, BJP's MlA Ajay Tamta got 348186 votes including postal while Congress candidate and sitting MP Pradeep Tamta earned 252496 votes; so BJP victory margin was 95690 votes, which is lowest in five seats.