Uttarakhand vote counting: Hat-trick for BJP or dent in its citadel

Dehradun: As Uttarakhand prepares for counting of votes on Tuesday, all attention is riveted on whether the BJP sweeps all the five Lok Sabha seats in the state for a record third straight term or its citadel is dented by its principal rival Congress which had drawn a blank in both 2014 and 2019 general elections.

Polling to the five Lok Sabha seats of Uttarakhand was held in the first phase on April 19. It will be interesting to see what the results have in store for the two new candidates fielded by the BJP this time -- former CM Trivendra Singh Rawat in place of sitting MP and another former CM Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank in Haridwar and the party's national media in-charge Anil Baluni in place of former CM Tirath Singh Rawat in Pauri Garhwal.

Both Haridwar and Pauri Garhwal are high profile seats won in the past by both the BJP and Congress stalwarts.

Senior Congress leader and former chief minister Harish Rawat won the Haridwar seat in 2009 but former BJP chief minister Nishank won it in both 2014 and 2019.

The Pauri Garhwal seat is currently held by former BJP chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat. It was won in 2014 by BJP stalwart Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri and in 2009 by Satpal Maharaj who was in the Congress at that time.

Eagerly awaited are also the results of Nainital, Almora and Tehri Garhwal constituencies from where sitting MPs Ajay Bhatt, Ajay Tamta and erstwhile Tehri Royal family's Mala Rajya Lakxmi Shah were repeated respectively.

Exit poll predictions have given all five seats in Uttarakhand again to the BJP.

People are equally curious to know the fate of Harish Rawat's son Virendra Rawat, a poll debutante who battled it out against former CM Trivendra Singh Rawat in Haridwar and former PCC president Ganesh Godiyal who put up a spirited fight against BJP's national media in-charge Baluni in Pauri Garhwal. Godiyal's campaign meetings in the constituency drew big crowds Harish Rawat, who is the tallest Congress leader from the state at present, campaigned actively for his son in Haridwar which has a substantial Muslim and Dalit population, while Godiyal campaigned aggressively for himself in Pauri which also has Muslim and SC dominated pockets. Party star campaigner Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had also campaigned in Ramnagar for him.

Winning even a single seat from the state means a lot for the principal opposition party as it would end its prolonged dry spell. It has not just lost all five Lok Sabha seats in 2014 and 2019 but was also trounced by the BJP in both 2017 and 2022 assembly polls.

The Congress won only 11 seats against the BJP's 57 in a house of 70 in 2017. It improved its position slightly in 2022 winning 19 seats against the BJP's 47.

Though Congress and BJP are locked in direct contests in all seats, there are more than 50 candidates in the fray, including those from the BSP, Uttarakhand Kranti Dal and Independents.

Uttarakhand's Chief Electoral Officer BVRC Purushottam said counting will begin at 8 am across all counting centres on Tuesday.

Counting of votes through EVMs and postal ballots will go on simultaneously, he said, adding around 10,000 personnel have been engaged in the exercise.