It is a bitter-sweet victory for the BJP in Uttarakhand as the saffron party won the state, but its “poster boy”, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, lost from the Khatima seat.
Dhami, who was up against Congress candidate Bhuvan Chandra Kapri, had earlier won the seat in 2012 and 2017. The 10th Chief Minister of the hill state, Dhami was sworn in on July 3, 2021 following the resignation of Tirath Singh Rawat, who had become Youngest CM of Uttarakhand at the age of 45.
The BJP had to change two chief ministers to pacify the disgruntled MLAs and finally entered the election with Dhami’s face.
Experts were of the view that the relatively inexperienced leader Dhami was made the chief minister because in the 2022 assembly elections, the BJP had decided to focus more on the Kumaon region, where the opposition Congress has been dominating. In the 2017 elections, the BJP had won 34 seats in the Garhwal region, just two short of the majority mark in the state.
Dhami belongs to the Thakur community, and the saffron party tried to balance caste and regional equations ahead of the elections by electing him as the next chief minister.
The Chief Minister of Uttarakhand started his political career with the BJP student wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. He served as the state president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha till 2008. As a former president of the BJP youth wing, Dhami had a good rapport with the youth cadre.
On Tuesday, Dhami exuded confidence that the BJP would do well in Uttarakhand. “The people of Uttarakhand have voted for the BJP on the basis of development and welfare schemes of the government for the poor in the pandemic. As the exit polls have indicated, we will have a comfortable majority. In fact, the number of seats may be more,” Dhami said.
Addressing the media on Thursday, Dhami said: “I want to thank the people of Uttarakhand. We did development work. People have given us the mandate, which shows that people have given priority to those who work.”
He continued: “I was nowhere in the race but given a chance by my leadership, history has been written today. We promised Uniform Civil Code and we will fulfill all our promises. About Uniform Civil Code we We have already said that we will form a high power committee, this committee will present the draft.
Besides Dhami, senior Congress leader Harish Rawat also lost the election from Lal Kuan constituency by a huge margin, which is another setback for the grand old party.
In a social media post, Rawat admitted that he has lost and there is only a formal announcement left by the election body.
The BJP is all set for a second consecutive term in the state – something that has never happened in the state’s 21-year history. It has always been alternate between BJP and Congress.
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