Saturday, 12 March 2022 | PNS | Dehradun
Political analysts are of the opinion that the influence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and women voters played a decisive role in the victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party in these Assembly elections in Uttarakhand. The women voters who outnumbered men by 4.6 per cent in Uttarakhand, played a crucial role in BJP’s victory, particularly in the mountainous constituencies, where the migration of men in search of employment is higher.
“There’s a lot of support for Modi among women. During the Covid lockdown, the Modi government started providing free ration. He connected directly with people in rallies, speaking a few lines in the local language,” said HNB Garhwal Central University, Department of Political Science head, professor MM Semwal.
“This election was based on personality politics. While the BJP has a strong leadership at the centre, the Congress had a mass leader in Harish Rawat. But, Congress neither projected him as chief ministerial candidate, nor was it able to cash in on the anger against BJP,” he opined. The key factors which contributed to the party’s win in these elections include seeking votes in the name of centrally funded schemes, aggressive campaigning against Congress at the last moment, rural women casting votes and considerably strong strategy at the organisational level.Semwal further said that this election was focused on personality politics and due to the influence of Modi and the development plans of the central government the voters, especially women voters voted for BJP with great enthusiasm.
Perception politics also played a crucial role in the whole election because Modi had said here that this decade will be of Uttarakhand. “The BJP also took the bold step of not fielding some sitting MLAs. The BJP also got the advantage by expelling cabinet minister Harak Singh Rawat from the party at the right time. The party was successful in sending the message among the public that BJP means good governance and development whereas the Congress means corruption and factionalism. On the other hand, a visible reason for Congress’ defeat in Uttarakhand is the unwillingness of the Rahul-Priyanka duo to project any of its state leaders as definite chief ministerial candidate, intending to keep their grip till the last minute on the post election scenario. Another reason for the Congress losing was the lack of high voltage energy of its central leadership in Uttarakhand election along with poor homework by the party. As a result of this, almost all of its winning candidates won only on their own strength, while both the good and not so good BJP candidates fought and won in the name of their central leadership and were also truly supported by the Modi factor. The Congress also failed to capitalise on the anti-incumbency factor. It failed to pump up the disillusioned voters against the real and perceived non-performance of the BJP government,” added Semwal.
