Giant killers who made elections interesting

Jotirmay Thapliyal

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, January 20

Giant killers have always made Uttarakhand’s turbulent electoral history interesting. They have been a cause of downslide in political careers of many and also led to emergence of new leaders.

Starting from the first Assembly election in 2002, the then incumbent chief minister and tallest BJP leader in the region late Nityanand Swami narrowly lost to Congress candidate Dinesh Agarwal by a margin of over 1,500 votes from the Lakshman Chowk Assembly seat in Dehradun district. The loss came as a big shock for the BJP and the rejection of Swami’s leadership. It also led to emergence of Dinesh Agarwal as giant killer. This was first electoral victory for Dinesh Agarwal, who subsequent went on to register victories in 2007 and 2012 Assembly election and went on to become the Forest Minister in the Congress government. The defeat on the other hand came as a rude shock for Nityanand Swami, an old Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh man and the poll verdict brought an end to his long political innings.

The 2002 Assembly election also saw another big upset when then a novice and Congress candidate Ganesh Godiyal defeated BJP’s Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank in the Thalisen Assembly seat of Pauri Garhwal district by little over 900 votes. A former minister in the then undivided Uttar Pradesh, Nishank was then eyeing chief ministership in Uttarkhand but was humbled in his very own turf. Godiyal then a non- resident Uttarakhandi emerged as giant killer.

The subsequent, 2007 Assembly election saw emergence of another giant killer in the form of BJP’s Bansidhar Bhagat. He defeated key Congress minister Indira Hridayesh on the Haldwani Assembly seat by over 4,000 votes. The outcome surprised poll analysts as Hridayesh then had contested the poll on the plank of development.

Then the last 2012 Assembly poll saw some of the biggest upsets in the electoral history of Uttarkhand when former union minister and BJP’s chief ministerial face BC Khanduri lost to Surendra Singh Negi of the Congress from the Kotdwar Assembly seat by a margin of over 4,500 votes. That loss of one seat to BJP resulted in formation of Congress government in Uttarakhand. Surendra Singh Negi emerged as giant killer and this Uttarakhand’s Congress MLA even drew attention of the Congress high command as he made Khanduri, one of the most popular leaders of the BJP bite the dust.

Voters of Uttarakhand have time and again sprung up with lest expected poll verdicts. In the first Assembly election in the state, when psephologists expected BJP to gain as it had created the state of Uttarkhand, but on contrary Congress won convincingly.

“The voters in Uttarakhand have made their choices and rejections getting least influenced by their political stature and there is no doubt that the ensuing 2017 Assembly elections could also see emergence of few more giant killers,” says Shankar Singh Bhatia, a Dehradun-based political analyst.