The fate of candidates from Tehri lok Sabha constituency, which spreads across three districts of the State, will be decided by the voters of seven Vidhan Sabha segments in Dehradun district. From this perspective both Congress candidate Saket Bahuguna and BJP candidate Mala Rajya laxmi Shah have not left any stone unturned to garner support of Dehradun voters especially 43,810 first time voters.
As per the Election Commission of India (ECI) data Tehri constituency has 13,52,537 voters including 7,04,071 males, 6,37,268 females and 11, 144 service voters. In which 8,26,954 voters reside in Dehradun districts seven assembly constituencies including Chakrata, Vikasnagar, Sahaspur, Raipur, Rajpur Road, Dehradun and Mussoorie. Remaining 5,25,583 voters resides in two districts including Uttarkashi and Tehri district. In Uttarkashi district mere 2,04,598 voters resides in three Assembly constituencies namely Gangotri, Purola and Yamunotri while four assembly seats namely Ghansali, Pratapnagar, Tehri and Dhanolti of Tehri district falls in Tehri lok Sabha constituency and having 3,09,841 voters.
The seat was represented by Manbendra Shah, who belong to Tehri dynasty, in between 1957-1967 and 1991-2007 but in 2007 he died, then Congress leader Vijay Bahuguna won Tehri lok Sabha bypoll by defeating Manujendra Shah. In general election-2009 Vijay Bahuguna had defeated BJP candidate Jaspal Rana. later he became the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand on March 13, 2012 and he resigned from the Tehri lok Sabha seat.
later Vijay Bahuguna’s son Saket Bahuguna lost Tehri bypoll to BJP candidate Mala Rajya laxmi Shah in 2012. Now again both candidates are fighting each other. Saket Bahuguna, who had tried to start his political career by contesting lok Sabha bypoll like his father did in 2007 but could not succeed, is fighting to take revenge while Shah is fighting to defend her seat. She knows that if she loses then she would not get party ticket anymore because some BJP leaders are eyeing the seat. Although Saket is hopeful that Vijay Bahuguna Government had declared Uttarkashi district two blocks- Bhatwari and Dunda as OBC, which would better his chances in these polls.
While Rana is hopeful that she would be blessed by the public again because people want to see Narendra Modi as Prime Minister of India. She further said that people are fed up with the price rise and corruption, which were moving northward during Congress led UPA 10 years long regime, so they would vote for BJP.
Realising the importance of Sahaspur and Vikasnagar Assembly constituencies, where 2,38,926 voters including 1,05,074 in Sahaspur and 1,33,852 Vikasnagar out of 8,26,954 voters of Dehradun district of Tehri constituency, BJP prime ministerial Narendra Modi addressed a public rally at Herbertpur, Dehradun on April 29. Coincidentally Sahaspur is being represented by BJP MlA Sahdev Pundir while Vikasnagar is being presented by congress MlA Navprabhat. later BJP organised Gen VK Singh public meeting in Garhi cant of Tehri constituency.
Interestingly Tehri Parliamentary constituency comprises of 14 Assembly constituencies and spread in three districts. In which six Assembly seats presented by BJP MlAs namely Malchand (Purola) Bhim lal Arya (Ghansali), Sahdev Pundir (Sahaspur) Harbans Kapur (Garhi cant), Ganesh Joshi (Mussoorie) Mahabir Singh (Dhanolti); six seats being presented by congress MlAs including Pritam singh (chakrata), Navprabhat (Vikasnagar), Umesh Sharma Kau (Raipur), Rajkumar (Rajpur road), Vikram Singh Negi (Pratapnagar) and Vijay Pal Sajwan (Gangotri) and two seat including one each being presented by UKD and Independent i.e. Pritam Singh Panwar (Yamunotri) and Dinesh Dhanai (Tehri).