The ruling State Congress party may have failed to communicate with the citizens on burning regional issues during the election campaign, as the citizens always wish to know from the ruling party, results of the recently concluded lok Sabha elections will definitely come as a referendum on the present Congress-led State Government's more than two years' performance.
Whereas the State BJP's poll plank by and large was revolving around Modi factor and providing good governance and development if voted to power, the Congress led State Government seemed to have forgotten to instill a sense of confidence among the citizens by offering what it has in store for them during the poll campaign.
Among many a perennial concerns of Uttarakhand like migration of people from different parts of the mountain state, rehabilitation of disaster affected people, rebuilding of basic infrastructure on the Char Dham pilgrimage route particularly the Kedarnath valley and area specific basic services issues like drinking water crisis are some of the few burning matters which continue to remain a major concern. But the ruling party leaders hardly divulged much on its plan how to deal with these concerns.
When the attention of Congress candidate from the Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar parliamentary constituency K C Singh Baba was drawn to the acute drinking water crisis of the Haldwani Assembly constituency which is part of this lok Sabha seat, Baba tried to perform his responsibility saying that he would take up that matter with MlA from Haldwani Assembly constituency Indira Hardiyesh who also happens to be the State Cabinet Minister.
Besides, Baba added, he is also working on how to solve the drinking water crisis of the region on long term basis.Similar assurances were also made by BJP's candidate from the aforesaid seat Bhagat Singh Koshiyari during his interactions with the people and media. But the drinking water continues to remain same in Haldwani area for decades.
Similarly, none other than Chief Minister Harish Rawat started his inning as head of the State Government from the Kedarnath valley which the natural calamity struck the most in the last monsoon, to send out a message that his Government is serious about early and proper rehabilitation of the people from the disaster affected areas.
The fact of the matter is that ever since Chief Minister Rawat's joining as the head of the State Government, about three months are going to be completed, but basic infrastructure has not yet been put in place in the Kedarnath valley area.
As the officials concerned of the Tourism Development Council, Uttarakhand, informed due to poor state of the basic infrastructure in the Kedarnath valley, the flow of pilgrims has been limited upto 500 per day, while till the previous year over 10,000 devotees used to visit the same Kedarnath Dham. Yet the State Government has described reopening of the Char Dham pilgrimage as a big achievement.
It is worth mentioning here that disappointingly the basic services of the hill State like poor state of health services in hill an remote areas of Uttarakhand and for that matter other burning issues that the citizens of the hill State have to face every way of life, could not attract the attention of the regional as well as national leaders during the more than a month long election campaign in Uttarakhand.
Whereas the BJP leaders who are expecting a clear cut or rather an overwhelming majority for their party, tried to restrict their poll campaign to the 'Modi wave', the ruling party members seemed to be trapped in the BJP's election campaign strategy as the Congress party resorted blame-game politics.