Sunday, 07 April 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Haridwar Lok Sabha constituency is a variegated mixing pot of religion, caste and culture. Spread in the districts of Haridwar and parts of Dehradun, Haridwar LS constituency is the smallest constituency in terms of area among the five seats in Uttarakhand. However, in terms of voters (2,00,31,632) Haridwar stands in first position in the State followed by Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar LS constituency.
Geographically, Haridwar LS seat borders the Tehri LS seat in north, Garhwal LS constituency in east and Saharanpur and Bijnor LS seats of Uttar Pradesh in west and south east respectively.
The constituency comprises 11 Assembly segments of Haridwar district which are Haridwar City, Ranipur BHEL, Haridwar Rural, Jwalapur (SC), Bhagwanpur (SC), Jhabreda ( SC), Piran Kaliyar, Roorkee, Khanpur, Manglaur and Laksar. Three Assembly segments (Rishikesh, Doiwala and Dharampur) of Dehradun district also fall in the constituency.
Prior to the creation of Uttarakhand, some parts of Muzaffarnagar district were in the Haridwar LS seat. The Haridwar constituency has always attracted leaders from other areas who were welcomed and assimilated by the people of Haridwar. Many stalwarts such as Ram Vilas Paswan, Mayawati, Harish Rawat and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank- all outsiders- have contested from Haridwar in the past.
In the by-election for the seat held in the year 1987, the then BSP supremo Kanshi Ram had fielded Mayawati from Haridwar. In the same election, Ram Vilas Paswan also entered the fray on Janata Party (JP) ticket. In the election both lost to Ram Singh of Congress party. However this election established both Mayawati and Paswan in the national politics and both went on to become stalwarts of Dalit politics in the country.
Haridwar also provided succour to senior leader of Congress party Harish Rawat who had faced a string of defeats at the hands of Bacchi Singh Rawat of BJP from his traditional Almora parliamentary seat. In the Lok Sabha election of 2009, Rawat tried his luck from Haridwar after his Almora constituency was reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC). In this election Rawat received a much needed political panacea as he won the seat and became a central minister in the UPA (II) government of Manmohan Singh. He later became chief minister of the State and fielded his wife Renuka Rawat from the Haridwar constituency in the election of 2014. However she lost to Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank of BJP. Nishank again won from the seat in 2019 and was made Union Education minister by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In the ensuing elections the BJP replaced sitting MP Nishank with former chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat. The Congress on the other hand has fielded Virendra Singh Rawat who is the son of Harish Rawat.
The BSP initially offered its ticket to Bhawana Pandey but later withdrew her candidature and fielded Jamil Ahmed Qasmi. He and Khanpur MLA Umesh Kumar (Independent) are trying to make the contest four cornered.
The contest however is increasingly becoming a direct contest between the two Rawats of BJP and Congress. The election is also being viewed as of personal importance for former CMs Trivendra Singh Rawat who is on comeback in the political mainstream after unceremonious removal from post of CM in March 2021 and Harish Rawat.
In the high pitched campaign the BJP is playing the Hindutva card and is claiming credit for construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya and its government’s decision on Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and land jihad in Uttarakhand. It is also banking on the development projects undertaken during the last 10 years of the Modi government. The Congress on the other hand is trying to corner BJP on issues of farmers such as Minimum Support Price (MSP) and woes of sugarcane farmers.
Haridwar has a formidable Muslim and Dalit presence. As per an estimate there are 4.5 lakh Muslim and about four lakh Dalit voters in Haridwar. The Congress, BSP and independent candidate Umesh Kumar are trying to woo this formidable vote bank which has helped Rajendra Singh Badi and Harish Rawat win elections in the year 2004 and 2009 respectively.
Out of the 14 assembly constituencies of Haridwar the ruling BJP has won from Dharampur, Doiwala, Rishikesh, Haridwar, Ranipur BHEL, Haridwar City and Roorkee assembly segments in the elections of 2022. The Congress holds five (Jwalapur, Bhagwanpur, Jhabrera, Piran Kalier and Haridwar Rural) while one seat each ( Laksar and Khanpur) is held by BSP and independent candidates. The Manglaur seat has fallen vacant due to the death of the BSP MLA.
In the LS elections of 2019, BJP candidate Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank won the seat by cornering 6,65,674 votes while Ambrish Kumar of Congress received 4,06,945 votes while BSP candidate Antriksh Saini got 1,73,528 votes. BJP got an impressive 52.37 per cent votes in this election.
Fact File
Haridwar Lok Sabha
Total voters- 20,31,632
Male voters- 10,68,735, Female voters- 9,62,738, Transgenders- 159, Polling stations- 2,318
