The BJP candidate from Garhwal Parliamentary constituency and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Maj Gen (retd) Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri won the election defeating his nearest rival and State Cabinet Minister Harak Singh Rawat by a margin of more than 1.85 lakh votes. Khanduri has now been elected five times from this constituency.
The Garhwal parliamentary constituency includes 14 Assembly constituencies and in the 2012 Assembly general election, Congress had bagged 10 Assembly seats, the BJP won three seats while one seat was won by an independent candidate.
However, in this parliamentary election the BJP led in the all 14 Assembly constituencies. In Badrinath Assembly constituency BJP got 29,754 votes while Congress polled 19,212 votes; in Tharali the BJP got 29,384 votes and the Congress got 17,007 votes; in Karnprayag the BJP got 27,464 votes and Congress got 15,902 votes; in Kedarnath BJP got 26,015 votes while Congress got 15,826 votes; in Rudraprayag BJP got 30,435 votes and Congress got 14,256 votes; in Devprayag. BJP got 24,212 votes and Congress got only 8,572 votes; in Narendranagar BJP got 29,501 votes and Congress got 11,055 votes while; in Ramnagar BJP got 37,870 votes and Congress got 23,731 votes; in Yamkeshwar BJP got 20,230 votes and Congress got 11873 votes; in Pauri BJP got 25,125 votes and Congress got 11,873 votes; in Srinagar BJP got 30,006 votes while Congress got 18,874 votes; in Chaubattakhal BJP got 23,028 votes and Congress got 15,355 votes; in lansdowne BJP got 21,294 votes and Congress got 12,682 votes while in Kotdwar BJP got 41,633 votes and Congress only managed 23,731 votes.
It will be recalled that Khanduri had lost the 2012 Assembly election from the Kotdwar constituency to SS Negi of the Congress.
The anti- incumbency against the UPA Government at the Centre and two years of Congress led Government in the State, the wave in favour of BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and the clean image of Khanduri worked heavily in the favour of the BJP in Garhwal constituency. Factionalism in the Congress further weakened the party’s position here. The voters of Uttarakhand, especially those in the mountainous regions of the State were dissatisfied with the Congress for misgovernance, unemployment, price hike, corruption and delay in the execution of development works in the State.