When Chief Minister Harish Rawat promised to set up a separate Ministry for defence personnel in his ‘nine-point pledge’ if voted back to power, he had in mind the electoral might of serving and retried armed forces personnel who constitute about 20 per cent of the population of the State.
This influential group is assertive for its rights and is very much politically conscious due to which all political parties prefer to go an extra mile to woo it.
Uttarakhand has a tradition of sending its youth to serve in the armed forces of the country. A rough estimate put the number of armed forces veterans and Veer Naris (widows of armed forces personnel) at 1.65 lakh and the State is home to about thirty thousand retired paramilitary forces personnel. Similarly an estimated 1.50 lakh personnel belonging to the State are serving in different wings of the armed forces of the country. The political observers said an estimated 20 per cent of total 75 lakh voters in the State are from the armed forces background. Though the veterans and Veer Naris are spread in all parts of the State their concentration is more in the districts of Dehradun, Pauri and Pithoragarh. These districts send 20 MlAs to the State Assembly.
The BJP leaders are telling the veterans that the long pending demand of One Rank One Pension (OROP) was fulfilled by the saffron party. Similarly the recent surgical strikes on terrorist platforms across the line of Control (lOC), appointment of General Bipin Rawat as Army chief and clearance for construction of a war memorial in Dehradun are some of the issues the BJP hopes would turn armed forces voters towards it.
The Congress leaders are trying to corner the BJP on the issue of OROP as they accuse it for not fulfilling its promise. The head of the ex-servicemen cell of State Congress Captain Balbir Singh Rawat (Rtd) claimed the party is receiving very good support from the veterans and their families.
“The Congress Government of the State waived off the house tax for ex servicemen, opened many offices of Sainik Kalyan, increased the financial assistance from Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 lakh on the marriage of daughters of war widows and constructed many guest houses for ex servicemen,’’ he said.
The political dominance of the ex-servicemen is also reflected in the distribution of the party tickets.
The Congress has fielded lt General TPS Rawat from lansdowne and Surendra Singh Negi from Kotdwar. From Mussoorie, the BJP has reposed its faith in old war horse Ganesh Joshi. Similarly Major General B C Khanduri (rtd) and lt General Gambhir Singh Negi (Rtd) are very senior leaders of the BJP and Congress respectively.