Mr Rawat and the other Rawat
Candidates contesting two seats is no news in most states but still a rarity in Uttarakhand. In this election, there are two such candidates, both named Rawat. Chief minister Harish Rawat is one of them, contesting from ie Haridwar (rural) and Kichcha. The other is a transgender candidate, Rajni Rawat, who is having a go at Raipur and Dharmapur. The latter is a diehard optimist, having taken her first tilt at the mill nine years ago. “I’ll win,” she says. She has roped in Shabnam Mausi, the country’s first transgender MLA, from Madhya Pradesh to help her out in the campaign. There are only 151 third gender voters in the entire state though.
BJP pehle app
As might be expected, the BJP is taking the lead in blitzing the voter with technology. The party launched an app on Tuesday to connect with the youth. Union health minister J P Nadda was on hand to launch the app along with local party glitterati. The party said the app is available for free download on all stores for free download and contains up-to-date infographics, videos and campaign news. Alas, a search on google returned a ‘not available in your country’ message.
BJP ahead in opinion polls
Polls, as Donald Trump will tell you, are an inexact science. And in a small state like Uttarakhand, with only 70 seats, the inferences can be dodgy. Still, we’ll have you know that the BJP has been consistently tipped to wrest power from the Congress. Six opinion polls have reported so far from the state and all of them put the BJP ahead. The latest, done by Aaj Tak-Axis give the saffronites 40-44 seats.