The educational qualifications of the candidates rarely count in the hurly-burly of the electoral politics as the Indians have made it a habit to vote for one either on the basis of the promises he dishes out or on the party symbol he is contesting. However, for those who do care, the diverse educational qualifications of the candidates in the fray in the electorally important Haridwar district are an interesting revelation. While some of the candidates are graduates or post-graduates 14 of them have not crossed the threshold of the high schools. Besides, there is an MBBS who is trying his fortune in the electoral battlefield.
Take for instance, the Roorkee seat. Known as the education hub of the district housing an Indian Institute of Technology and a host of premier educational institutions, all the contestants are highly qualified. On the other hand, just nine of the 15 contestants are graduates for Ranipur seat. While for Haridwar urban seat, seven out of the nine candidates are graduates things are worse for Jwalapur, Bhagwanpur and Jhabreda seats as just a few of the contestants have passed the gateway of graduation.
Viewing things from the angle of the party affiliations, things in the district are far from satisfactory. While eight of the 11 Congress candidates are graduates the figure is one less for the saffron camp.
Three of the Congress candidates — Brahmswaroop Brahmchari (Haridwar urban seat), Ambrish Kumar (Ranipur) and Mamta Rakesh (Bhagwanpur) are post-graduates. SP Singh Engineer contesting from Jwalapur is a B-Tech and MBA while Chaudhry Yashvir from Khanpur, Kazi Nizamuddin from Manglaur, Suresh Chandra Jain from Roorkee and Chief Minister Harish Rawat from Haridwar Rural are graduates.
Among the BJP candidates, Suresh Rathore contesting from Jwalapur, Pradeep Batra from Roorkee and Swami Yateeshwaranand from Haridwar Rural seats are post-graduates while the contestant from Jhabreda seat Deshraj Karnwal is a PG diploma holder. Madan Kaushik in the fray from Haridwar Urban seat, Kumwar Pranav Singh Champion fighting from Khanpur and Sanjay Gupta from laksar constituencies are graduates. Adesh Chauhan contesting from Ranipur, Subodh Rakesh from Bhagwanpur and Rishipal Baliyan from Manglaur have crossed the threshold of the intermediate while Jai Bhagwan contesting from Piran Kaliyar has barely crossed the bar of the high school education.
On the side of Bahujan Samaj Party, one of the candidates Anju Mittal is an MA while Ram Subhag Singh is an MBBS. Bhagwanpur contestant Ramkumar Rana holds a diploma in Electronics while three others Prashant Rai, Mulkiraj and Mukarram Ansari just crossed the bar of the intermediate. This aside, the party’s candidates from Jhabreda and laksar certified in their nomination papers that they just passed the high school examinations.