Woman candidate & strong women voter base, BJP looks forward to victory in Kedarnath bypoll
Tuesday, 29 OCTOBER 2024 | PURNIMA BISHT | DEHRADUN
The Bharatiya Janata Party is aiming to secure the Kedarnath Assembly by-election by banking on a woman candidate and the support of women voters. The BJP has fielded its Mahila Morcha chief and two-time former MLA Asha Nautiyal as its candidate in the bypoll, leveraging Kedarnath’s history as a woman-dominated seat. In every Assembly election since Uttarakhand’s formation, a woman has won in Kedarnath—except in 2017, when Congress candidate Manoj Rawat, now fielded again by the opposition, claimed victory. BJP’s choice of Nautiyal could give it an edge, with the party looking to capitalise on the tradition of women-led representation and the influential women electorate. Nautiyal brings strong credentials to the race. She first won the Kedarnath seat as a BJP candidate in 2002 and retained it in 2007 by defeating Congress’ Kunwar Singh. However, her winning streak was halted in 2012 when she lost to the Congress candidate. In 2016, following a political shake-up, Shaila Rani Rawat and 11 other Congress MLAs joined the BJP after rebelling against the then chief minister Harish Rawat. BJP then fielded Rawat in the 2017 elections, inbrespibse to which Nautiyal contested as an independent, finishing third. While Congress’ Manoj Rawat won that year, Rawat reclaimed the seat for the BJP in 2022 as Nautiyal chose not to contest.
Women voters are a substantial force in Kedarnath, both in numbers and turnout. According to the official data, Kedarnath currently has 90,540 voters, with 45,775 women and 44,765 men. In 2017 assembly elections in Kedarnath, 57.88 per cent men voted while 71.79 per cent women and in 2022, 60.29 men voted and 69.61 per cent women. This shows the significant difference in voter turnout of men and women in the constituency. Women’s vote turnout has been consistently higher than the state average in Kedarnath, further highlighting their influence in the constituency. With Nautiyal as its candidate, the BJP is counting on her appeal and the backing of women voters to give it an advantage over the opposition’s male candidate in this critical by-election. The BJP State president Mahendra Bhatt, who is confident about Nautiyal’s victory in the bypoll, said that she has been working for people of Kedarnath at the ground level for over two decades. He said that not just in terms of getting maximum votes of women voters, BJP has an edge over the Congress’ candidate in every aspect, be it development, ethics or support of every gender.
