Uttarakhand Assembly Election Results: `Lotus` blooms on hills, Harish Rawat `punished`

The Bharatiya Janata Party has scripted a wonderful success story in Congress-ruled Uttarakhand Assembly Elections 2017.

Most exit polls had given the BJP a clean sweep and forecast a downslide for the ruling Congress. The results are no different than the predictions on March 09.

The humiliating drubbing of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat from both the Haridwar (Rural) and Kichcha (Udhamsingh Nagar district) seats is even more embarrassing for the Congress.

This is also to be underlined that Rawat had become the first state CM to have contested from two Assembly constituencies.

The results show that people cast ballots against Rawat’s `autocratic` style of functioning. The projection of the Uttarakhand CM as `baahubali` by the Congress` campaign managers also left voters unimpressed.

The result is a clear-cut referendum on the wrong strategies employed by Congress in ticket distribution.

The party's choice of candidates for the Uttarakhand Assembly polls had triggered anger among some activists who had even vandalised the party office in Dehradun.

Unhappy over ticket distribution, a number of key Congress leaders, including former Uttarakhand CM Vijay Bahuguna, had defected to the BJP.

Bahuguna joined the BJP last year and got a ticket for his son Saurabh Bahuguna from Sitarganj, and also for more candidates close to him.

Notably, Saurabh has won Sitarganj, defeating Malti Biswas of the Congress with a margin of 28,540 votes.

The BJP also gave a ticket to Rudraprayag MLA and veteran Congress leader Harak Singh Rawat from Kotdwar and won.

With this result, those who had questioned the Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah’s strategy to take the advantage of a rebellion in the opposition camp and distribute tickets to political turncoats have been proven wrong.

The result is a clear mandate on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonetisation move. The Congress was seen backing the corrupt and the rich by opposing the notes ban. And the BJP campaign for corruption-free Uttarakhand struck a right chord with voters.

Also, the PM's promise to provide central funds and an all-around development of the hill state impressed the people of 'devbhoomi'.

During his campaign, the PM had urged the people of the hill state to punish the Congress, which he said, had brought disrepute to Uttarakhand.

It seems the PM's people have paid heed to the PM and `punished` Congress.

(Voting for 69 seats was held in Uttarakhand on February 15)