The central leadership of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is said to have taken a serious note of the dismal performance of the party in the Haridwar district in the Assembly elections in Uttarakhand. The party was able to win only three out of 11 seats in Haridwar district which pales in comparison to the stellar performance of the BJP in other districts of the state.
The Congress party which performed poorly in the elections fared well in Haridwar as its candidates were able to secure victory in five seats of the district. The BPS candidates won from two assembly segments while an independent Umesh Kumar emerged victorious in the Khanpur assembly constituency of Haridwar.
It is pertinent to mention here that the president of Uttarakhand BJP Madan Kaushik comes from the Haridwar district and he himself was a candidate from the Haridwar city constituency. Internal bickering in the district BJP is said to be one of the causes of the poor performance of the party in the district which accounts for maximum number of the seats in the 70 member assembly of Uttarakhand. One senior leader of the party told The Pioneer on the condition of anonymity that the party’s leadership is not happy with the performance of the party and the role of some leaders in Haridwar. He indicated that heads could roll after the party leadership analyses the situation.
When asked to comment on the poor performance of the party in Haridwar district the president of Uttarakhand BJP Madan Kaushik told The Pioneer that the election should be viewed in totality. “In the state the BJP performed very well and won with 2/3 majority,'' he said.
Incidentally the bickering in BJP in the Haridwar district had come to the fore during the elections itself. Immediately after the end of the voting the MLA from Laksar assembly constituency and party candidate Sanjay Gupta had attacked the state president of the party Madan Kaushik for colluding with his opposition to ensure his defeat. He demanded that disciplinary action should be initiated against Kaushik for his role in the election. Gupta ultimately lost to Mohammad Shajad of BSP in Laksar. Swami Yatindranand Giri who had contested the Lok Sabha election of 2009 from Haridwar on BJP ticket also wrote a letter to the national president of BJP J P Nadda in which he claimed that many leaders worked against the party in the elections.
Seats won by BJP in districts
Uttarkashi- two out of three
Chamoli- two out of three
Rudraprayag- two out of two
Pauri- Six out of six
Tehri- Five out of six
Dehradun- nine out of ten
Haridwar- three out of eleven
Pithoragarh- two out of four
Bageshwar- two out of two
Almora – four out of six
Champawat- one out of two
Nainital- five out of six
Udham Singh Nagar- four out of nine.
Lack of organisational structure & limited interaction with public at grassroots caused AAP's failure in U'khand
PNS/Dehradun
Political analysts believe that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) failed to bag even a single seat in the Uttarakhand Assembly elections due to inappropriate organisational structure and lack of direct contact with people at the grassroots level.
The AAP became active here about two years and its national convenor and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal made seven visits to the state besides other senior leaders like deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia who also visited Uttarakhand. The party also extended its bases across the districts and adopted the strategy to target different sections in the state like women, youths, businessmen and public transport drivers among others which impressed many. However, according to political analysts, all these initiatives remained limited to social media users as the party did not put sufficient efforts to interact with the public directly, especially in remote areas. According to the senior journalist Yogesh Bhatt, "AAP, similar to Congress, lacks a strong organisational structure as in BJP. The BJP workers reached remote areas to interact with the public and made them aware of the work done by the party at the central as well as the state level. Despite the chaos within the party, BJP workers generally continued to work for the party's welfare, unlike others. On the other hand, the AAP leaders never went beyond the social media platforms besides a few visits to certain areas. Their visions and announcements for the state were praiseworthy but they failed drastically to convey them to the public. Their chief ministerial candidate Ajay Kothiyal got only around 5,000 votes which clearly shows the success level of their campaign.
The people obviously had their own sets of complaints against BJP's works but AAP failed to tap that resentment for political benefits due to its lack of direct interaction with people at the grassroots level." He also said that AAP using the same frame of Delhi's model to woo the voters everywhere also backfired in a diversified state like Uttarakhand. He said, "Delhi is a cosmopolitan area whereas Uttarakhand is diversified and scattered and is different in terms of society, geography and demography. People here have their own sets of issues that cannot be compared with the people of Delhi or Punjab. Also, people here are more connected with national politics where BJP is more prominent at every level than any other party." He also said that despite the announcement of providing Rs 1,000 to women aged above 18 years by AAP here, women here chose BJP as its government had offered free ration of up to five kilogrammes every month during the Covid-19 pandemic that supported women's household during the crisis. This is an example of how people's priorities are different here than in other states.
Bhatt said that if AAP does not frame a different strategy for people here and continues to stick to its Delhi model to woo voters, they might meet the same fate in the upcoming civic polls if they decide to participate next year. "The civic polls demand more teamwork at an organisational level to woo the voters than the assembly polls. The AAP needs to leave leading the campaigns with the Delhi model and must frame a new strategy altogether to do well in polls here," said Bhatt.