Friday, 06 September 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has set the ball rolling for the crucial Assembly by-election of Kedarnath by pressing as many as five of his cabinet ministers (Dhan Singh Rawat, Subodh Uniyal, Ganesh Joshi, Saurabh Bahuguna and Rekha Arya) for the managing BJP’s campaign in the constituency. Interestingly the cabinet ministers have been assigned responsibilities of the Mandal units of the party in the poll bound constituency.
The Congress party on the other hand has also decided to resume its suspended Kedarnath pratistha raksha Yatra on Sept 12. The Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Karan Mahara had suspended the Yatra at Sitapur on August 01 after a rain triggered disaster hit the Kedarnath valley. Mahara along with other senior leaders will restart the Yatra from Sitapur. He will offer prayers at Kedarnath shrine on September 13 and meet with the priests and local stakeholders.
The Congress party had started Yatra from Har ki Paidi in Haridwar on July 24 and tried to convey the message that the Dhami government is trying to undermine the prestige of the Kedarnath Dham. In the Yatra the Congress party attacked the CM and the BJP for participating in the foundation stone laying ceremony of Kedarnath shrine in Buradi New Delhi. When the issue snowballed into a major controversy with locals and Teerth Purohits registering their strong protest, the State government forced the trust planning to construct the temple in Buradi not to go ahead with the construction work.
The by-election in Kedarnath is being necessitated due to the death of Shaila Rani Rawat.
Though the election commission of India is yet to announce the date of the important by-election both the political parties have started the necessary political groundwork for the battle of by-election.
For the ruling BJP the bypoll of Kedarnath has become an issue of prestige. After losing the recent Manglaur ( Haridwar) and Badrinath ( Chamoli) by- elections, the BJP is desperate to register victory in Kedarnath. The Congress which has been on losing streak in Uttarakhand after losing all the five Lok Sabha seats in the General elections of 2014, 2019 and 2024 and facing back to back defeats in Vidhan Sabha elections in 2017 and 2022 has got new lease of life after recent by- election victories in Manglaur and Badrinath. The central leadership of Congress party and opposition INDI alliance is also keen to defeat BJP in Kedarnath. The opposition believes that after registering victories in Ayodhya (Faizabad) in Lok Sabha and Badrinath by-election, victory of Congress in Kedarnath will give a message that the people of centres of Hindu faith have rejected the politics and policies of BJP.
