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Voters'' silence confuses political parties

DEHRADUN: The record polling of 68 per cent to elect the fourth state Assembly and the silence of voters about their preferences have confused not only political parties, but also poll pundits.

Voters'' silence confuses political parties

Illustration: Sandeep Joshi



SMA Kazmi

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, February 19

The record polling of 68 per cent to elect the fourth state Assembly and the silence of voters about their preferences have confused not only political parties, but also poll pundits. The ruling Congress and the BJP are busy applying various permutations and combinations of the polling trends to decipher the verdict given by the voters of the state.

The polling percentage has shown a slight increase of nearly two per cent than the previous Assembly polls of 2012 and this increase is seen as an advantage by both parties which are claiming victory. There has been a gradual increase in the voting percentage after the creation of the separate state of Uttarakhand in 2000. In the first ever state Assembly polls held in 2002, the polling percentage was 54.34 per cent and it increased to 59.45 per cent in 2007 Assembly polls. The 2012 Assembly polls witnessed polling percentage of 66.17.

In the last three Assembly elections, Uttarakhand has given a verdict of change with the BJP and the Congress sharing power alternately. The BJP interim government, after the formation of the state in 2002, was replaced by the Congress in the first Assembly elections. In 2007, the BJP replaced the Congress government. The Congress again came to power following a razor-thin victory in the 2012 state Assembly polls and formed the government with the support of BSP and UKD legislators and also Independents, who formed their own outfit, naming it Progressive Democratic Front (PDF).

Although the state has a past record of alternating between the Congress and the BJP but the the polls this time are different in many ways, thus difficult to predict the outcome. The last year political drama in which 10 ruling Congress legislators crossed over to the BJP to bring down the Harish Rawat-led Congress government and later the imposition of Presidents’s rule and its annulment by the apex court led to lot of political churning in the hill state. The victory of Chief Minister Harish Rawat in the Supreme Court-ordered floor test was seen as a defeat of the BJP-led Central Government, which tried everything to topple the government.

The elections saw blurring the lines between the two main political rivals. With the BJP giving ticket to Congress rebel legislators, the Congress also reciprocated by obliging BJP rebels and giving them ticket. The ideology and talk of clean politics went for a toss as there was resentment in both parties on the choice of candidates. The rebels of both, who are in fray, threaten to upset the calculations of both the parties.

It would be interesting to watch if the BJP onslaught, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who held four largely attended election meetings in the state and senior BJP leaders, had any drastic impact on the voters. The increase in the percentage of voting is also seen by many political pundits as a sign of change but many believe that it could be a double edged sword. The questions whether the issues of anti-incumbency and demonetisation had any impact on the voters particularly in the plain districts of the state has been agitating both the political parties. The wait till March 11, the day of counting could be suspenseful and agonising for the BJP and the Congress.

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