The Assembly elections in Uttarakhand in the past have seen political minnows turning into giant killers and big names biting the dust in the poll battles.
The loss of Major General Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri (Rtd) from Kotdwar Assembly constituency was the most surprising result in the 2012 Assembly elections. The political pundits were not expecting Khanduri to lose as the BJP had fought the election on slogan ‘Khanduri hai zaroori’ (Khanduri is essential) and made him the Chief Ministerial candidate. But the people of Kotdwar sent the former Army General packing. Khanduri was humbled by Congress leader Surendra Singh Negi.
Eventually, the Congress was able to form Government in the State as it secured one more seat than the BJP (Congress 32, BJP 31). Trivendra Singh Rawat was another political heavyweight to loose in these elections. He lost to Umesh Sharma ‘Kau’, considered a person with much smaller political stature as compared to Rawat.
In the first Assembly elections of the State which were held in 2002, Dinesh Agarwal a newcomer created one of the biggest political upset when he defeated first Chief Minister of Uttarakhand and senior BJP leader Nityananad Swami by a margin of more than 1,500 votes from Dharampur Assembly constituency.
Swami who could never recover from the shock of this defeat went into political retirement. On the other hand the victory firmly established Dinseh Agarwal as a leader and he went on to win the seat in the Assembly elections of 2007 and 20012.
Another senior BJP leader Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ was at receiving end of people’s verdict in the 2002 Assembly elections when Congress candidate Ganesh Godiyal defeated him by a margin of more than 900 votes from Thalisain Assembly constituency.
Incidentally, Godiyal — a businessman of Mumbai — fought the election for the first time and defeated a heavyweight like Nishank who was a Minister in undivided Uttar Pradesh.
In the Assembly elections of 2007, senior Congress leader Narendra Singh Bhandari who had served as Minister in various Governments in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand had to suffer an ignominy of remaining in third position from his home constituency Pauri. An Independent Yashpal Benam won the seat defeating his nearest rival Tirath Singh Rawat of the BJP.
Another senior leader who tasted defeat in the Assembly elections of 2007 was Congress veteran Indira Hridayesh. A newcomer Banshidhar Bhagat of BJP forced her to bite dust from her home turf of Haldwani.
The political pundits in State Capital Dehradun said the ensuing elections would also witness some of big names biting dust as the people of the State are known to serve surprises for netas.