Tuesday, 16 November 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
Being undertaken at a time when the crucial assembly elections in the state are round the corner, the Shaheed Samman Yatra is clearly targeted at the vote bank of ex-servicemen in Uttarakhand.
The armed forces veterans and their families constitute an influential vote bank which can tilt the scales in the favour of any party in the assembly elections. It is said that in Uttarakhand one person from every second household is associated with the armed forces or para military forces. Sawad, known as the abode of warriors and the village of armed force personnel, was strategically chosen as the starting point of the Yatra.
In his address in Sawad the chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami tried to strike an emotional chord with the ex servicemen by stating that he is son of a soldier and has seen the valour and sacrifice made by the families of the armed forces personnel.
A political observer opined that the Yatra would try to evoke the nationalist sentiment which would definitely help BJP in the upcoming elections. He pointed out that during the recent visits both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah had dedicated a major portion of their speech to the ex-servicemen and the armed forces. With an eye on these votes the BJP government had recently appointed Lieutenant General (Retd) Gurmit Singh as the governor of Uttarakhand.
There are an estimated 1.80 Lakh armed forces veterans and Veer Naris (widows of armed forces personnel) in the state. Similarly the state is home to about thirty five thousand retired paramilitary forces personnel. An estimated 1.50 lakh personnel belonging to the state are serving in different wings of the armed forces of the country.
As per the data of the election commission there are 93,978 service voters in the state out of which 91,415 are male and 2563 female voters. Pauri district has maximum number of service voters (16,163) followed by Pithoragarh (14,545). Chamoli has 10,398, Dehradun 9,805, Almora 7,218 and Tehri 5,791 service voters.
