The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has bucked the trend in Uttarakhand, and broken the cycle of incumbent governments being voted out of power since its formation in 2000.
Though Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami lost from Khatima, his party registered a resounding victory in the hill state. The party had brought in Dhami, not popular till then, after changing two Chief Ministers — Trivendra Singh Rawat, and Tirath Singh Rawat — in three months, and that gamble paid off.
It was a well-crafted strategy by the BJP to beat the anti-incumbency against its government as is evident from Dhami’s defeat. From that moment onwards, the central leadership took control of the situation, and monitored every minute detail of the election campaign.
While religious polarisation played a significant part in the BJP’s victory, the party’s ‘double engine’ narrative too worked well on the ground. A final push came from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
Since a large number of people from Uttarakhand are in the defence and para-military services, a strong nationalism pitch worked for the BJP. The Hindutva card, especially Dhami’s decision to scrap the controversial Char Dham Devasthanam Management Act, enacted by the Trivendra Singh Rawat-led government in 2019, helped the BJP to regain the trust of the dominant Hindu voters.
This act had allowed the Char Dham Devasthanam Management board to act as the highest governing body to look after the shrines in framing policies and expenditure sanction. However, priests of Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri, and Yamunotri opposed the Act, saying it was an infringement upon their traditional rights over the Char Dham temples. Dhami's move came at the right time for the BJP.
So was his directive to the authorities to identify areas that are witnessing spurt in the Muslim population and illegal construction of mosques in the hills.
For its part, the Congress could not cash in on the strong anti-incumbency factor or frequent replacement of chief ministers by the BJP, and literally snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
An uninspiring and lackadaisical leadership coupled with lacklustre campaigning further failed to woo the voters. Former Chief Minister Harish Rawat’s mis-governance during his previous tenure proved to be a stumbling block for the voters to gravitate towards the Congress. Harish Rawat had lost from both the seats he contested in the 2017 assembly elections and could not re-establish a connect with the voters this time, resulting in his defeat from Lalkuwa. Harish Rawat’s sulking Facebook posts in the midst of elections over the leadership not naming him the chief ministerial candidate proved damaging for the Congress.
During his tenure, Harish Rawat had declared a 90-minute break for the Muslim government employees to offer Friday prayers, and that move was identified as one of the key factors for the Congress’ defeat in the 2017 assembly elections. It has continued to haunt him in 2022 as well.
Another move that spelt the doom for the grand old party was a claim by a Congress leader, Akil Ahmad, that Harish Rawat has accepted his demand for setting up a Muslim university in Uttarakhand. The issue gave a handle to the BJP to attack the Congress. The ruling party upped the ante, saying the Congress will establish a Muslim university in Uttarakhand, which is a Devbhumi and a centre of Char Dham pilgrimage. This triggered a backlash, forcing the Congress and Harish Rawat to deny the claim; but the damage had been done.
The infighting in the Uttarakhand Congress had peaked ahead of the elections, but the central leadership, especially All India Congress Committee in-charge Devendra Yadav failed to address the issue, and unite the divided house.
A victorious BJP will now have to take a call on continuing with Dhami or zeroing on his replacement. Will that be another fresh face, or an old guard?
Aurangzeb Naqshbandi is a senior journalist who has been covering the Congress for 15 years, and is currently associated with Pixstory.
Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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