In Haridwar which is the home district of state president Madan Kaushik, BJP won only three out of 11 seats
Sunday, 13 March 2022 | Gajendra Singh Negi | Dehradun
The central leadership of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is said to have taken a serious note of the dismal performance of the party in the Haridwar district in the Assembly elections in Uttarakhand. The party was able to win only three out of 11 seats in Haridwar district which pales in comparison to the stellar performance of the BJP in other districts of the state.
The Congress party which performed poorly in the elections fared well in Haridwar as its candidates were able to secure victory in five seats of the district. The BPS candidates won from two assembly segments while an independent Umesh Kumar emerged victorious in the Khanpur assembly constituency of Haridwar.
It is pertinent to mention here that the president of Uttarakhand BJP Madan Kaushik comes from the Haridwar district and he himself was a candidate from the Haridwar city constituency. Internal bickering in the district BJP is said to be one of the causes of the poor performance of the party in the district which accounts for maximum number of the seats in the 70 member assembly of Uttarakhand. One senior leader of the party told The Pioneer on the condition of anonymity that the party’s leadership is not happy with the performance of the party and the role of some leaders in Haridwar. He indicated that heads could roll after the party leadership analyses the situation.
When asked to comment on the poor performance of the party in Haridwar district the president of Uttarakhand BJP Madan Kaushik told The Pioneer that the election should be viewed in totality. “In the state the BJP performed very well and won with 2/3 majority,” he said.
Incidentally the bickering in BJP in the Haridwar district had come to the fore during the elections itself. Immediately after the end of the voting the MLA from Laksar assembly constituency and party candidate Sanjay Gupta had attacked the state president of the party Madan Kaushik for colluding with his opposition to ensure his defeat. He demanded that disciplinary action should be initiated against Kaushik for his role in the election. Gupta ultimately lost to Mohammad Shajad of BSP in Laksar. Swami Yatindranand Giri who had contested the Lok Sabha election of 2009 from Haridwar on BJP ticket also wrote a letter to the national president of BJP J P Nadda in which he claimed that many leaders worked against the party in the elections.
