PNS | Agastyamuni
The high pitched campaign for the Kedarnath Assembly by-election ended on Monday. The candidates will now focus on door to door visits to woo the voters for the high profile bypoll which has become an issue of prestige for the chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and State unit of Congress party.
On the last day of the campaign both BJP and Congress threw their full might in wooing 90,000 voters who will decide the fate of the six candidates who are in the fray on November 20. Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami held a massive road show and addressed a public meeting at Guptkashi on the day to seek public support for BJP candidate Asha Nautiyal while former chief minister Harish Rawat and other senior leaders of Congress held a series of small public meetings in many villages of the constituency.
Considering the importance of the bypoll necessitated due to the death of the incumbent MLA Shaila Rani Rawat of BJP, both the political parties had stated their campaign immediately after declaration of the candidates and soon it attained a high degree of intensity.
Led by CM Dhami, the ministers of his cabinet, BJP president Mahendra Bhatt and former CMs Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and Trivendra Singh Rawat, the BJP focussed its campaign on development of the area. Just ahead of the imposition of the model code of conduct (MCC), CM Dhami had announced a mega package of Rs 750 crore for Kedarnath. In the campaign, the BJP tried to emphasize voters that a win of the party candidate will ensure further development of the area. In the last phase of the campaign the BJP also raised the issues of land, love and spit Jihad.
Congress on the other hand focussed on restoring the pride and prestige of Kedarnath dham. Its leaders led by former CM Harish Rawat and former Pradesh Congress committee (PCC) president Ganesh Godiyal accused the BJP government of ignoring the area which was affected by huge natural disasters in the year 2013 and in August this year. The Congress leaders also targeted the BJP for the gold allegedly missing from Kedarnath temple and allowing outsiders to purchase huge tracts of land in Uttarakhand.
