Saturday, 13 APRIL 2024 | PURNIMA BISHT | DEHRADUN
The electoral pitch of the Bharatiya Janata Party is focused on aspects like development, national security and the welfare of the common citizens versus the interests of the ‘royal family’ of the Congress, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders accuse the Congress of mainly focussing on. In such a scenario, the Tehri Lok Sabha constituency presents an interesting contest with the BJP fielding the sitting MP- Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah- a member of the erstwhile royal family of Tehri while the Congress has fielded former MLA Jot Singh Gunsola and Bobby Panwar as an independent candidate is also doing his bit to make a mark. Tehri is one of the five parliamentary constituencies in Uttarakhand that came into existence in 1957 following the delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies. It comprises 14 Assembly constituencies of the Dehradun, Tehri and Uttarkashi districts. It includes all three Assembly constituencies of Uttarkashi district- Purola, Gangotri, Yamunotri, four Assembly constituencies of Tehri district- Ghansali, Pratapnagar, Tehri and Dhanaulti and seven Assembly constituencies of Dehradun district- Chakrata, Vikasnagar, Sahaspur, Raipur, Rajpur Road, Dehradun Cantonment and Mussoorie. There are a total of 15.74 lakh voters in the LS constituency at present that include 8.13 lakh male voters, 7.6 lakh female voters and 62 transgenders. The constituency has 2,462 polling stations. The BJP and Congress have won this seat in turn since 1957 but the BJP has successfully maintained dominance in the constituency for the past three LS elections- 2019, 2014 and 2012 (by election). BJP won the Tehri seat for the first time in 1991 under Manavendra Shah who was also a Member of Parliament from Tehri in 1957, 1962 and 1967 as a Congress candidate and as a BJP candidate in 1991, 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2004. Since the past two LS elections, his daughter-in-law Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah has been winning the election there. She is the first woman MP of Uttarakhand. In the 2014 LS elections, she defeated Congress candidate Saket Bahuguna, the son of the then chief minister Vijay Bahuguna. She got 4,46,733 votes with a vote share of 57.5 per cent and won the seat with a margin of 1,92,503 votes. Bahuguna got 2,54,230 votes with 32.72 per cent vote share. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Shah won the seat with a margin of 3,00,586 votes. She got 5,65,333 votes with a vote share of 64 per cent and defeated Congress candidate and six time MLA from Chakrata Pritam Singh who got 2,64,747 votes with a 30.11 per cent vote share. The BJP has once again put its faith in Shah from the Tehri seat in the LS elections 2024. She will contest against veteran Congress leader Jot Singh Gunsola, a two-time MLA from Mussoorie and the independent candidate Bobby Panwar who claims to represent the voice of youth in the State. Shah comes from the erstwhile royal family of Tehri and her father-in-law was one of the longest serving members of the BJP. The opposition parties have consistently accused her of being too privileged and disconnected from people to know about common people’s struggles. Her rivals and some among the public too say that she is hardly seen interacting with people except during the election. Gunsola and Panwar claim to represent the common man and their struggles. Gunsola is one of the senior Congress leaders in the State and has served as chairman of Mussoorie municipal council from 1988 to 1994 and 1997 to 2002. He also won the Assembly election from Mussoorie in 2002 and 2007. It is being said that Congress initially wanted Chakrata MLA Pritam Singh to contest from the Tehri LS constituency but he refused. The party then gave the ticket to Gunsola on Singh’s recommendation. However, the Congress has been affected badly due to the consistent defection of its senior leaders like Jot Singh Bisht, Maganlal Shah and Vijay Pal Sajwan which can possibly affect their potential voters in this constituency. The independent candidate Bobby Panwar is also creating a buzz in the elections, especially among the youths. He is the president of Uttarakhand Berozgar Sangh (UBS) who became popular among the youths after he raised his voice against several scams in the government recruitment examinations in the State in 2023 that came to light about two years ago. He was even sent to jail for seven days in February last year after the agitation against the scams in recruitment examinations turned violent. He was accused of instigating the violence under the pretext of agitation. This incident made him more popular across the State, especially among the youths belonging to mountainous areas who prepare for years to crack government examinations. Many youngsters consider him their voice and feel connected. Both Gunsola and Panwar claim to be connected to their roots and seek a chance to serve the people of the Tehri LS constituency against Shah.
