Massive victory of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in the just-concluded local bodies election in Uttarakhand has struck a severe blow to not only the ruling Congress party in the state headed by Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, but also to the party’s national vice-president Rahul Gandhi who had acted as the strategist for the elections.
If the mood of the people of the this tiny Himalayan state reflected in the local bodies elections, is any indicator, the message is clearly written on the walls that they have rejected the ruling Congress party.It was so hostile towards the Congress that out of six mayoral seats, the Congress failed to win even a single seat, while the BJP annihilated its rival in majority of the seats. Out of six mayoral seats, BJP won four and Independents two (both BJP rebels). Out of 69 posts of heads of nagar panchayat and nagar palikas, 22 each went to Independents and the BJP, 20 to Congress, three to the BSP, one each to the SP and the local outfit UKD (Uttarakhand Kranti Dal). At ward level too the Independents and BJP won two third of seats leaving the Congress the rest.
This is the second major loss of the Congress as a few months back, Congress candidate, none other than the son of Vijay Bahuguna had lost Lok Sabha bye-election in Tehri Parliamentary constituency. Saket Bahuguna had lost to BJP by a margin of 22,000 votes, when SP and BSP had not contested the poll in favour of the Congress.
“Successive defeat of the party in recent elections has raised the eye brows of the party high command and if the party has to recover from continuous downslide, before the 2014 Parliamentary elections, a change of guard in the state should be one of the main priority,” said former minister Kishore Upadhyaya while talking to Express from Dehradoon.
“This is the promo, final film will be shown in the 2014 Parliamentary elections, former chief minister Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank told Express.In 2009 elections, Congress had swept all five LS seats in its favour.
The Congress failed to dislodge the BJP mayor from Dehradoon where the Bahuguna family had campaigned extensively.Similarly, the party lost Hardwar seat also represented in the LS by Minister of State Harish Rawat. The loss of the Congress in the two cities exposes the perpetual feud between the warring camps of Bahuguna and Rawat.
Vijay Bahuguna has been constantly under attack by his own party. He faced stiff opposition from his party colleague Harish Rawat, who had worked hard to win the election in 2012 and successfully led the party to victory. But he was denied chief ministership by the party high command after BJP’s defeat despite the fact he had limited role in the 2012 Assembly elections. Since then the divide between the warrings camps led by Bahuguna and Rawat grew wider resulting in party’s defeat.