Saturday, 23 April 2022 | PNS | Dehradun
In all the past by-elections, the CM has secured a landslide victory over opponents
History is on the side of chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami who is seeking an entry in the fifth Vidhan Sabha of Uttarakhand by contesting the by-election from Champawat. In Uttarakhand the sitting chief ministers have contested four by elections and all of them have won their seat conveniently.
In fact an analysis of past 12 by-elections in Uttarakhand have shown that the ruling party candidates always have an edge over their opponents.
After the resignation of BJP MLA from Champawat, Kailash Chandra Gehtodi, the election commission is soon expected to announce the by-election on this seat. To fulfil the constitutional obligation of getting elected to the state assembly within six months, CM Dhami is all set to contest from Champawat. Dhami would be the fifth CM of Uttarakhand who had to contest the by-election in the state.
In the elections of 2002, the Congress party secured a comfortable majority in the state assembly by winning 36 seats in the 70 member assembly. Ignoring the claims of many leaders including the then Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Harish Rawat, the Congress high command appointed veteran Narayan Dutt Tiwari as CM of the state. Since Tiwari was not a member of the assembly, the MLA from Ramnagar Yogamber Singh Rawat vacated his seat for Tiwari. Interestingly Tiwari came to Ramnagar only to file his nomination papers before the voting and visited the area only to take the victory certificate. In this election he crushed his BJP rival Ram Singh Bisht by a margin of over 23,000 votes. Tiwari secured 32,913 votes while Bisht could muster only 9,693 votes. The second CM of the state to contest by-election in the state was Major General (retd) B C Khanduri who was nominated by the BJP in the year 2007 when the party won in 34 seats and formed the government with the support of independents and UKD. The BJP leadership played a masterstroke by roping in senior Congress leader and MLA from Dhumakot Lieutenant General (retd) TPS Rawat to its side. In the ensuing by-election Khanduri secured 22,708 votes while the Congress candidate Surendra Singh Negi got only 8,537 votes. In fact it was Negi who took the revenge of his defeat in the assembly election of 2012 when he defeated the then CM Khanduri from Kotdwar constituency.
In the assembly elections of 2012, the Congress got one more seat than BJP in a closely contested election (Congress 32, BJP 31). The Congress high command nominated Vijay Bahuguna as the CM of the state and the party applied the BJP’s formula of roping in opposition MLA after which BJP MLA Kiran Mandal vacated his Sitarganj seat for Bahuguna. In this by-election, Bahuguna inflicted a crushing defeat on the BJP candidate Prakash Pant. Bahuguna got 53,766 votes while Pant could secure only 13,812 votes. The aspiration of Congress stalwart Harish Rawat to become CM was fulfilled in the year 2013 when the Congress high command removed Vijay Bahuguna from the post of CM after the Kedarnath disaster. To pave the way for Rawat’s entry in Vidhan Sabha, Dharchula MLA Harish Dhami vacated his seat. In the by- elections held in 2014, Rawat defeated his BJP rival Bhanu Dutt by a margin of 20,604 votes.
Considering the past record of CMs in the by-elections coupled with regional, caste and other factors, the experts point out that CM Dhami is expected to register a landslide victory in the Champawat by-election.
