Cloudy sky and intermittent rain on Thursday and Friday in the State capital adversely affected the election campaign by workers of various political parties and independent candidates.
The nomination process for the lok Sabha election-2014 in Uttarakhand will end on Saturday and it is believed that with weather permitting the candidates will step up their campaign activities. However, politicians are anxious considering the present state of weather especially in the mountainous regions. Due to the prevailing colder than the normal conditions, the party workers and candidates are facing difficulties in conducting door to door campaign in their constituency.
Expected crowds are not turning up at many places as people prefer to remain indoors rather than participate in political campaigns or meets. The political leaders are also addressing comparatively fewer people at public
meetings. A supporter of a candidate from Tehri lok Sabha seat, on condition of anonymity, said that intermittent rains in the last two days had slowed down tempo of electioneering. Though the campaigning has been affected, it has not been stalled by the weather. Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate from Tehri, Shiv Prasad Devli said, “Despite intermittent rain, I conducted door to door campaign at various places like Shyampur, Parbal, Devipur, Umedpur, Ambiwala, Thakurpur, Naya Goan and other places under Sahaspur Vidhan Sabha constituency. Adverse weather has really affected the pace of my campaign and it would be better if weather conditions improve.”
The State Meteorological centre has forecast cloudy sky and thunder shower at isolated places on Saturday. The maximum and minimum temperatures were recorded at 23.3°C and 15.2 °C respectively in Dehradun on Friday. The weather forecast for Dehradun on Saturday is generally cloudy sky and rain/ thunder showers at isolated places. The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be around 29°C and 15°C respectively on Saturday in Dehradun. The weather forecast for Uttarakhand on Saturday is rain/ thunder showers at a few places especially in very higher reaches and rain/ thunder showers at isolated places in the rest of Uttarakhand.