Ex CM Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, who was leading in Haridwar lok Sabha seat, has been facing tough fight from Congress candidate, Anupma Rawat, and if similar situation continues, election in Haridwar seat will be tough in all the other four lok Sabha seats of Uttarakhand.
Political analysts say Nishank is known as a good manager, while Congress candidate Renuka’s husband and incumbent Chief Minister Harish Rawat has better hold of the party’s ground workers, who play a pivotal role in motivating voters during campaign.
Realising that Dalit and Muslim voters number are around 8 lakh out of 15.5 lakh voters in Haridwar constituency, both Congress and the BJP have been busy luring these two vote banks.
Dr Nishank, who started his career as a teacher in Saraswati Shishoo Mandir and served the newly-carved out Uttarakhand as Chief Minister in July 2009-September 2011, knows how to manage or defeat his opponent.
Being a Chief Minister, he had started grooming his Doiwala Assembly constituency and finally he won the seat by less than 1,300 votes. Thereafter, he started grooming Haridwar lok Sabha constituency and the BJP high command allocated him ticket by overlooking another opponent and BJP MlA Madan Kaushik. Although MlA Kaushik expressed his displeasure through media after he lost the race of getting the ticket from Haridwar lok Sabha seat, later he overtly supported Dr Nishank. Sensing trouble in the coming days, Dr Nishank, who was residing in Dehradun, has changed his correspondence address because he took a house on rent in Haridwar.
On the other hand, Renuka’s husband, the incumbent Harish Rawat, who started his political journey as a gram pradhan and served the nation as a Union Cabinet Minister and is currently serving as the State’s Chief Minister since February 1, 2014, has been taking each and every step to groom Haridwar and Almora lok Sabha constituency. He represents the first constituency and the latter was represented by him before delimitation in 2008.
He knows the status of each Congress workers’ strength and weaknesses. Currently, he is facing a stiff challenge within the Congress because Ex-CM Vijay Bahuguna’s supporting Minister and MlAs are annoyed with him. Harish Rawat, who had won Haridwar lok Sabha seat by more than 1.27 lakh votes during the General Election-2009, is under pressure to defend his parliamentary seat otherwise his opponent would become more vocal against him.
As a result, Rawat had ensured that the ticket should be allocated to his wife Renuka Rawat and the Congress high command made an announcement on April 9 in this regard. Since then, his wife has been busy organising road shows. By organising such campaigns, she has forced BJP candidate Dr Nishank to revise his strategy.
Seeing both the BJP and the Congress candidates’ involvement and innovative strategy, political analysts, who were saying that Dr Nishank would win, has been saying that now election would be tough here.
During General Election-2009, 7,87,903 out of 12,94,200 voters had franchised their democratic right in Haridwar constituency. Congress candidate had received 3,32,055 votes while BJP got 20,4,516 votes.
In Haridwar constituency, the total number of voters is 15,19,489 till January 31, 2014 and this figure will increase because electoral role is being revised by the ECI.
According to unofficial statics, around four lakh Dalit vote and four lakh Muslim voters reside in Haridwar constituency. In view of this, CM Rawat had started taking decision to lure these two voters and in this perspective, the BJP candidate is facing stiff challenge currently.