For pollsters, psephologists, and even the BJP and the Congress the result in Uttaranchal may have come as a big surprise. But definitely not for the citizens of the newly created state, who very consciously used the ballot to express the enormous degree of disillusionment with the incumbentBJP government.
The Congress, which won a simple majority, largely cashed in on the strong anti-BJP sentiment and thus won by default. The disenchantment with theBJP is evident in the fact that the Congress won despite struggling with infighting on election eve. In fact, the party has far excelled all its own optimistic projections.
The Congress victory is a severe jolt for the BJP, given that Uttaranchal has been its stronghold since the ’90s. The current 70 constituencies in the new state were culled from the 23 assembly segments in undivided UP in which theBJP had 18 seats while the Congress had just one.
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Out of these, Congress has won 36, leaving only 19 for the BJP. BSP was thesurprise winner of seven seats, majority of them coming from Hardwar district.Uttarankhand Kranti Dal, which spearheaded the separate statehood movement in1990s, managed to win only four seats.
BJP's campaign line, that it was instrumental in the creation of the newstate, managed to evoke scant response from the voters who clearly spelled outtheir disenchantment with bjp’s failure to curb unemployment and initiatedevelopment in the state.
BJP suffered a string of defeats with its main bigwigs like former chiefminister Nityanand Swami, Sports Minister Narayan Singh Rana, Tourism MinisterKedar Singh Fonia and Finance Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal losing at the hustings.
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Except Chief Minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, Health Minister Ajay Bhatt andUrban Development Minister Harbans Kapoor, all the BJP ministers have lost.
Significantly BJP has virtually lost ground in Garhwal region while it wasable to save its face in Kumaon region.
Congress Legislature Party leader Indira Hridayesh and its state generalsecretary Kishore Upadhaya won convincingly from Haldwani and Tehri seatsrespectively.
State Congress president Harish Rawat said that Congress Legislature Partywould meet shortly to decide on the choice of its leader but the final decisionon it would be taken by party president Sonia Gandhi.
Although victory may have come on a platter for the Congress, it comes with a challenge. The new CM will have to effectively handle the problems of the state. And going by theBJP’s example, the Congress cannot take the people of Uttaranchal for granted.
