Prestige of former CMs Trivendra Singh Rawat & Harish Rawat at stake in Haridwar
Tuesday, 02 April 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The Haridwar parliamentary constituency where former chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat of BJP is locked in a direct contest with Virendra Singh Rawat of Congress has become one of the keenly watched electoral battles of Uttarakhand in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections. Though BSP candidate Jamil Ahmed Qasmi and Khanpur MLA Umesh Kumar are trying to make the contest four cornered, the real fight in Haridwar is between the two Rawats of BJP and Congress. The contest of Haridwar is also being viewed as the election where the prestige of two former CMs, Trivendra Singh Rawat and Harish Rawat is at stake.
The battle of Haridwar is of personal importance for both TSR and Harish Rawat as a defeat can send them into political oblivion. Ever since he was removed unceremoniously from the position of CM of the State in March 2021, Trivendra Singh Rawat was kept out of political mainstream by the central leadership of BJP. The party has now rewarded him for his perseverance by offering him a ticket from Haridwar. The importance of faith imposed on him by the BJP leadership can be understood from the fact that the party denied ticket to former CM Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank who had won from Haridwar in the elections of 2014 and 2019. The election of 2024 is important for Harish Rawat also as the former CM withstood the pressure from all quarters to contest from Haridwar and succeeded in persuading the party leadership to field his son Virendra Rawat from the constituency.
Harish Rawat has now taken the entire campaign of his son Virendra in his hands and is working overtime to ensure that his son gets a firm footing in his maiden electoral battle.
Harish Rawat has carefully chosen Haridwar for the launching of his son as he has represented the constituency in the Lok Sabha elections of 2009. It is worth mentioning here that Rawat was able to establish his daughter Anupma Rawat in the politics of the area when she won from Haridwar (rural) Assembly constituency in the election of 2022. The demography of Haridwar suits the Congress party because it has about five Lakh Muslim and about 4.5 lakh Dalit voters. In the Assembly elections of 2022, Congress candidates secured victory in all the three constituencies (Jawalapur, Bhagwanpur and Jhabrera) reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC). Out of 11 Assembly constituencies of Haridwar district, the BJP was able to win in only three (Haridwar city, Roorkee and BHEL Ranipur) assembly segments of Haridwar in 2022. The Congress candidates secured victory in five while BSP won from Laksar and Manglaur Assembly constituencies. Umesh Kumar emerged victorious from the Khanpur Assembly constituency as an independent candidate. It is pertinent to mention here that Haridwar Lok Sabha has three Assembly constituencies (Dharampur, Doiwala and Rishikesh) of Dehradun district. The BJP candidates won from all these Assembly segments falling in Dehradun district. The political observers opine that the votes polled by the BSP candidate Jamil Ahemd and Umesh Kumar will have a major bearing on the election outcome in Haridwar. It is believed that BSP candidate is likely to eat into the votes of Congress party making things easy for BJP candidate Trivendra Singh Rawat.
