Chief Minister Harish Rawat has won the Dharchula assembly bypolls by around 20,000 votes on Friday.
He was sworn in as chief minister of Uttarakhand on February 1, 2014; so it was constitutional obligation for him to become member of Vidhan Sabha by July 31, 2014. By winning the bypolls, CM Rawat has ascertained that he is a mass leader and “will do everything for the welfare of the State”. Interestingly, he did not visit his constituency due to health reasons. Political analysts said that without visiting Dharchula, he won by 20,000 votes and if he had visited the segment, the margin might have been double than now.
The CM defeated BJP candidate BD Joshi by 20,604 votes. Commenting on the Congress victory in all the three assembly bypolls, Rawat said: “Victory always brings happiness”.
Congress MlA Harish Dhami had vacated his seat to usher CM Rawat’s entry into the State assembly as a member. He had resigned from the Vidhan Sabha at Gairsain, where a three-day long special session was called on June 10.
These three asssembly bypoll results have dealt a major blow to the BJP, which had won all five lok Sabha seats of the Uttarakhand during general election-2014. Now, the BJP has lost its two seats i.e. Doiwala and Someshwar, which were vacated by their MlA Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and Ajay Tamta respectively after becoming member of lok Sabha during general election-2014.