Direct fight between BJP n Congress in Uttarakhand. No role of third force ?

Since the Congress Party has formally declared its candidates, ( now) in all the five seats of Uttarakhand after tremendous exercise, the himalayan state has already gone into election mode of a direct contest between the ruling BJP and the Congress.

The Congress party is in reduced numbers in Uttarakhand assembly with merely thirteen seats, the lowest in the last eighteen years in the history of Congress, after achieving statehood.

Moreover, the factionalism in the party between the former CM Harish Rawat n the present state president Pritam Singh has now come out in the open with ten sitting MLAs going to Delhi against the former recently during the candidature finalisatiin exercise with complaints.

There have been regular charges n accusations against Harish Rawat n his group regarding running a parallel Congress in Uttarakhand despite his elevation as the general secretary of All India Congress Party, with the charge of Assam Congress affairs. The media has hyped the intercine squabbles making mockery of Congress affairs in the state thus degradung its image n reputation.

The grudge of the current state president n Congress’s nominee Pritam Singh n his group was, that since Rawat has now been given larger responsibility of Assam Congress affairs in his capacity as the member CWC n genl secretary AICC, he should instead of interfering in the state Congress affairs cooperate them than creating parallel Congress.

This reflects how serious is the factionalism in the Uttarakhand state party unit. However, bagging ticket from Nainital despite so much of opposition within the party speaks of the fact that Harish Rawat is still popular n powerful in Uttarakhand’s politics.

Those who got the Congress ticket from the five seats of Uttarakhand are Harish Rawat from Nainital, Pritam Singh Rawat from Tehri Garhwal, Manish Khanduri from Pauri, Garhwal, Ambrish Kumar from Haridwar n the Rajya Sabha MP Pradeep Tamata from Almora.

While three entrants are new in the list viz Manish Khanduri, Ambrish Kumar and Pritam Singh – Harish Rawat n Pradeep Tamta had been MPs from Haridwar and Almora.

Similarly in BJP too the saffron party has denied tickets to two ageing veterans Major general Khanduri n Bhagat Singh Rawat from Pauri n Nainital repeating the three sitting MPs viz Ajay Tamta, Maharani Lakshmi and Dr. Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank from Almora, Tehri Garhwal and Haridwar.

The political battle in Uttarakhand has become quite interesting as the leaders of both the parties are banking on the charisma of their respective leaders viz PM Narendra Modi n Congress chief Rahul Gandhi.

While the Congress party in the state would oppose PM Modi on his failures on employment and agrarian fronts compounded with the failure of the state BJP government to fulfil the pre election promises, the BJP on the other hand is overconfident of Modi charisma as well as ultra nationalism n hindu polarisations plus the success of air strikes on the Jaish training camps in Balakot Pakistan, safe return of wing commander Abhinandan and arrest of Nirav Modi in London n so on n so forth.

The third political force of regional parties is conspicuous by its absence this time with the regional party Uttarakhand Kranti Dal not able to mark its formidable presence despite it being the first political force in the state demanding n fighting for the separate Uttarakhand state.

What’s your take friends?