Vote bank politics which has become a tool to set their political ambitions for many, may no longer be relevant in the regional politics post Uttarakhand era.
If the trends of the popular verdict of local bodies polls held last year or the Assembly polls of 2012 or the recently concluded general elections in Uttarakhand are any indication, the politicians who have played politics to achieve their ambitions in this field eying caste and communal combinations, must be contemplating now on how to restrategise their fighting capabilities in the electoral battle field ahead in the mountain State where if need be the people take decision decisively.
If the BJP created history by winning the mayor seat of the municipal corporation of Haldwani region which is heavily polarised on caste and community lines in the civic body polls held in the summer of 2013, the voters of different assembly segments of the Udham Singh Nagar district which is considered as a strong hold of the Congress party due to its multi ethnic character, heavily upset Congress party's poll expectations in the assembly polls of 2012 giving seven seats out of nine to the BJP in that assembly polls of 2012, though one of the assembly seat of the Udham Singh Nagar district i.e. the Sitarganj seat was later bagged by Congress' Vijay Bahuguna in the by election held later in 2012.
And fact of the matter is that apart from certain other factors, better performance of the BJP in the assembly polls in Udham Singh Nagar in 2012 seemingly set the base for its victory in the recently concluded lok Sabha polls for the Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar parliamentary seat with a record over two lakh margin after a long gap nearly two decade.
More importantly, out of 14 assembly constituencies of the Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar parliamentary seat the Congress party failed to take lead even in any one of assembly seats of the aforesaid lok Sabha seat, in the recently concluded lok Sabha polls.
So the BJP registered a landslide victory in the said parliamentary constituency, putting an end to communal politics that has always been at the centre of the same seat.
With sizeable presence of muslim voters in certain assembly segments of this Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar parliamentary constituency including Haldwani, Rudrapur, Kashipur, Bazpur to name a few, the Congress Party has been able to better utilise the caste based politics in this seat, occupying this lok Sabha seat for maximum period since 1951. However, the BJP has been able to register its victory in this seat on only on two occasions in1991 and 1998 and the Janta Party in 1977.
Unlike three other lok Sabha seats of Uttarakhand i.e. the Almora-Pithoragarh, the Tehri and the Pauri lok Sabha seats, the Haridwar and Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar parliamentary constituencies are more sensitive from socio-political and religious point of view.
But whereas the under the UP regime the Congress party and the BJP dominated the Haridwar seat, with people becoming more decisive in their approach, regional party SP also won the Haridwar lok sabha seat in 2004 post Uttarakhand era and since then people of Haridwar have decisively exercised their franchise supporting the Congress party in 2009 polls and the BJP in the general elections in 2014.
However, poor show of the regional parties like SP and the BSP to name a few whose politics also revolves around certain socio political factors, in the electoral politics, only suggests that caste community based politics is only becoming insignificant in the hill State too.