The main contest for the Tehri parliamentary constituency in the lok Sabha elections 2014 appears to be between the Congress candidate Saket Bahuguna and BJP candidate Mala Rajya laxmi Shah. However, Aam Aadmi Party candidate Anoop Nautiyal is confident of a victory citing the public response he has received during campaigning so far. Political observers point out that even though a victory might be difficult to achieve for the AAP candidate, he might cut into the vote share of the BJP and Congress candidates.
According to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer of Uttarakhand, there are 13,52,537 voters in the Tehri parliamentary constituency. In the Tehri bypolls 2012, Shah had defeated Saket Bahuguna by more than 20, 000 votes. Contesting from this seat again, the Congress candidate believes that his activeness in the constituency during the two years since he lost the 2012 bypolls and various developmental works initiated by the State government will elicit votes in his favour. Saket Bahuguna alleges that during her two-year tenure as the Tehri MP, Shah has failed to meet public expectations and has facilitated little work in the constituency. The BJP candidate, on the other hand, believes that anomalies in the post June 2013 Uttarakhand disaster rehabilitation process, corruption at the State and Central levels along with a wave in favour of the BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi will work in her favour. While the BJP and Congress candidates trade allegations, the AAP candidate believes that his chances of a victory are strong considering the public response he has elicited while campaigning in both urban and rural areas of the constituency. Nautiyal states that he has visited the mountainous regions of his constituency four times in the last 40 days and based on his public interaction, he believes that the people are tired of both the Congress and BJP. Though he has been interacting with members of different sections of society, the AAP candidate believes that members of the minority community and the youth, especially in Dehradun would favour him.
According to political analysts, Nautiyal has elicited public expression of support from people like former Uttarakhand chief secretary SK Das, former principal secretary Vibha Puri Das and Mussoorie based author Ganesh Saili among others while actors including Archana Puran Singh and Ayub Khan have also campaigned for him in parts of the constituency. The AAP candidate from Tehri is trying to elicit support from various sections of society stating that the constituency needs an MP courageous and dedicated enough to raise their issues in the Parliament. Skeptics point out that though he may not be able to win the poll, he is expected to receive enough support to have an impact on the votes polled by the BJP and Congress candidates.