lotus bloomed in Haridwar on 8 Assembly seats out of a total of 11. The Haridwar Rural seat also proved a thorny bed for the state CM Harish Rawat who could not dare fight from urban seat and relied on the Muslim and Dalit vote bank but in vain. The split in Muslim vote bank between independent candidates and BSP also could not give Congress a place to stand. Also the false promises made by Congress contestant Harish Rawat made him lose the game.
Haridwar city is divided into two regions : Ganga region and beyond ganga. The long pending problem of bridge construction over Rawasan river where students have to cross the river to go to school is still not over. In the city area also road works are pending since long and the frustration of people struggling with road, electricity and water problem led to the defeat of Rawat say the observers. Also his policy of pacifying the minorities did not appeal to the people of lal dhang, Chandi ghat, Gaziwala, Peeli area and Gandikhata villages.
The region beyond ganga has villages where minority communities are in surplus. Rawat spent most of his time in canvassing the people of this region and Yateeshwaranand took benefit of the situation encashing the vote bank of ganga region. He took advantage of this and people of ganga region did not support Rawat who was tagged as minister of minorities.
To top it all, the split of Muslim votes led to the fall of Congress. There are ten assembly seats out of 11 in district Haridwar where minority vote bank plays key role. Traditionally Muslims were believed to be Congress supporters but in this elections muslim vote bank did not polarise towards congress at large and was divided over different issues. Especially in Kaliyar, Bhagwanpur, Jwalapur, Khanpur, laksar , Manglore and Haridwar rural seats where division of muslim voters have been observed.
Minority vote bank was clearly divided amongst Congress, BSP and independent contestants on Jwalapur seat. Same position was observed in Kaliyar assembly seat where muslims were divided among Congress , BSP and independent contestants. On Bhagwanpur seat a section of minority vote bank had cast their vote for BJP due to personal relation with BJP candidate. At Manglore, Khanpur and laksar seats, muslims were also divided between congress and BSP.