While the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party leaders focus on tackling their internal and external issues while mustering up forces for the Vidhan Sabha election slated for 2017, various other political bodies and coalitions appear to be mushrooming at the regional level with each declaring their intention to contest the Vidhan Sabha polls to provide the voters with a third front as a “viable alternative” for the masses to elect from.
On Tuesday, factions of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal faction headed by Trivendra Singh Panwar and the ‘Democratic’ faction, Mool Niwasi Samaj Party, Janta Dal Secular and other local political bodies formed a united coalition aimed at providing an alternative to the BJP and Congress in the coming Vidhan Sabha elections. Panwar said, “The people of Uttarakhand are disillusioned by successive state governments headed by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress. The level of corruption is at its peak in the State which has still remained far from achieving the desired level of development and redressing other issues for which creation of Uttarakhand State had been sought. The Congress and BJP are working in collusion to achieve their ulterior motives while the condition of the State and its people has continued to deteriorate,” he said.
In another development, the Bharatiya Antyodaya Party national chief Balveer Talwar addressed the media in Dehradun stating that the party intends to field its candidates in all the assembly constituencies of the state in the coming Vidhan Sabha election. The party has so far received candidatures of 27 persons from 12 Vidhan Sabha constituencies wanting to contest on the party ticket, he said. To garner support for its candidates, the BAP will focus especially on women and youth to boost its support base, he averred.
Political analysts point out that with a varying number of factions of the once sole regional party of the state – UKD, the regional political outfits at present amount to little, politically speaking. However, depending on a range of factors at both the national and state levels, the coming days may help clear the opinion of the considerable segment of voters reckoned to be uncertain about their traditional electoral choices. “During about 16 years since creation of Uttarakhand State, the people especially in the mountain towns and rural mountainous regions of Uttarakhand, have more often suffered from the effects of unscientific working of the government, corruption, indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources often leading to long term environmental damage, apparently increased frequency of disaster incidence, effects of climate change and continued migration.
This has left them disillusioned with the two national parties. It is too early to assess the chances or the impact of such regional political parties and coalitions, but in the absence of a visibly viable alternative, the national parties may benefit or suffer if the voters prefer independent candidates or those of the regional based alliances,” remarked an observer.