In Haridwar LS seat, 70 per cent turnout reported in Congress- ruled assembly segments as compared to 55 per cent in BJP -ruled ones
Sunday, 21 April 2024 | Gajendra Singh Negi | DEHRADUN
The Congress party which had lost all the five Lok Sabha seats to the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections of 2014 and 2019 in Uttarakhand is fancying its chances in three out of the five LS seats of the State. The average low voter turnout in the election coupled with the fact that a comparatively higher voting percentage was reported in many pockets in the State seems to have rekindled the hope of the grand old party. The party insiders point out that the Congress has a fair chance in Garhwal, Haridwar and Nainital- Udham Singh Nagar constituencies.
The enthusiasm of the Congress leaders is not without substance. An analysis of the Haridwar LS constituency shows that the voter turnout was much higher in the Assembly constituencies held by the Congress than in the constituencies held by the BJP.
In Haridwar LS constituency 62.36 per cent voter turnout was reported which is highest in the State. The data of Election Commission shows that in Haridwar rural Assembly constituency 73.21 per cent voter turnout was reported which is highest in the State. This constituency is held by Anupma Rawat of Congress. Similarly, 70.01, 69.58, 69.50 and 67 per cent voter turnout were reported in the Piran Kalier, Bhagwanpur, Jwalapur and Jhaberda assembly constituencies respectively. All these constituencies are held by Congress MLAs Furkan Ahmed, Mamta Rakesh, Ravi Bahadur and Virendra Kumar Jati respectively and an average 69.86 per cent voter turnout was reported in these five Assembly constituencies.
In comparison there are six Assembly constituencies BHEL Ranipur, Roorkee, Doiwala, Haridwar, Dharampur and Rishikesh in Haridwar LS constituency which are held by BJP MLAs Adesh Chauhan, Pradeep Batra, Brijbhushan Gairola, Madan Kaushik, Vinod Chamoli and Premchand Agarwal. In them 60, 59.40, 57.45, 54.84, 51.8 and 51.8 per cent voter turnout was reported respectively which means that only 55.88 per cent voters came out to vote in these areas considered to be the strongholds of the ruling BJP.
High voter turnout was also reported in Laksar (72 per cent), Kanpur (68.45 per cent) and Manglaur (63.20 per cent) Assembly constituencies of Haridwar. The political observers point out that the voter turnout in the Muslim areas was higher than the average voter turnout in the LS constituency .
It is estimated that Muslims and Dalits constitute more than 50 per cent of the 20, 31,632 -strong electorate of Haridwar Lok Sabha constituency. There are an estimated 5.50 lakh Muslim voters in the constituency which is about 27 per cent of the total electorate of the Haridwar Lok Sabha.
The high voter turnout in Muslim areas has brought tension in the BJP camp. The party is now hoping that the Muslim vote bank will divide between Congress, BSP and independent candidate Umesh Kumar which will pave the way for victory of its candidate the chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat.
Congress leader Manish Nagpal claimed that apart from Muslims and Dalits all sections of the society have voted for the Congress candidate Virendra Singh Rawat. He claimed that there was a direct contest between BJP and Congress in Haridwar this time with BSP and independent Umesh Kumar leaving no impact on the electorate.
