Uttarakhand: Khanduri no longer “Zaroori” for BJP, close fight for the five seats 

In a state dominated by people serving in armed forces and ex-servicemen, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) not surprisingly is riding on the nationalist narrative post Pulwama and Balakote air strike.

It anticipated easy going in the state, where the BJP had won all the five Lok Sabha seats in 2014. But sidelining of its most famous face in the party Maj. Gen. BC Khanduri (retd), the sitting Pauri Garhwal MP, and the Congress fielding the former Union Minister’s son Manish Khanduri has queered the pitch. Khanduri Junior is taking on BJP’s nominee Teerath Singh Rawat, a political protégé of his father.

Not surprisingly, the BJP is hard pressed to counter its own slogan of “Khanduri Hai Zaroori ” (Khanduri is necessary) which it had coined earlier. The retired Major General, a towering figure in the state.

People involved in the son’s campaign hold that Manish Khanduri has the blessings of his father and that he took the plunge following the humiliation heaped on his father by the current BJP leadership. Caught on the wrong foot, the BJP has hurriedly removed photographs of senior Khanduri from its election posters and banners.

Maj. Gen. Khanduri (retd), so far the face of BJP in Garhwal region, has a no-nonsense image and a large following among families of servicemen and ex-servicemen. Besides, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, who was known as “Himalaya Putra” (son of Himalayas) particularly in Garhwal, was his maternal uncle.

Maj. Gen. Khanduri (retd) who was elected from Pauri Garhwal Lok Sabha seat in 1991 for the first time, has been MP from the seat four times. He was twice a Union Minister in NDA governments and has also been the the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand twice. He refused to contest elections this time citing old age and health.

But Manish Khanduri does not mince his words while campaigning. His father, he declares, is “hurt” by the treatment meted out to him by the BJP. Senior Khanduri who belonged to the old guard in the BJP was not in the good books of the current dispensation of Modi-Shah in the party and was also not given another term as chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Defence following his report on shortcomings in equipping the Army.

I want to carry forward the work done by my father for the people of Uttarakhand and I am getting immense support from people,” says the Congress candidate. Teerath Singh Rawat, an old RSS hand and national secretary of the party, however, believes that nationalist feelings of the masses are with Prime Minister Modi and his own long association with senior Khanduri will help him comfortably win the seat.

People are waiting and watching to see if senior Khanduri changes his mind and campaigns for his son. To complicate matters, Ritu Khanduri, daughter of Maj. Gen. Khanduri and elder sister of Manish Khanduri, is a BJP legislator from Yamkeshwar Assembly segment which is a part of Pauri Garhwal parliamentary constituency, is campaigning for the BJP.

The BJP in its poll campaign is raising issues of development projects initiated by central as well as state governments like All Weather ‘Char Dham’ road, Rishikesh-Karanprayag railway line, medical insurance cover to all residents under Atal Ayushman Uttarakhand scheme with Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat at the helm.

“We are confident that people of the state would give a huge mandate to Prime Minister Modi for his courageous nationalist approach and developmental agenda,” claims Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat.

The Congress has targeted the BJP on unfulfilled promises of PM Modi , rising inflation, farm distress, large scale migrations from hills and increasing unemployment. “We are raising basic issues which concern common people of the state and getting tremendous response,” says Congress state chief Pritam Singh, who is himself a party candidate from Tehri Garhwal Lok Sabha seat against sitting MP Mala Raj Luxmi Shah, of the erstwhile royal family of Tehri.

The royal family of Tehri has won the Tehri Lok Sabha seat nine times since Independence while Pritam Singh is four time legislator from Chakrata Assembly segment. He is banking on the lack of popularity and inaccessibility of the sitting MP in the polls. Being a Rajput, the dominant caste in the constituency, he also has the support of Muslim community spread in Dehradun district.

The BJP MP is getting support from the Gorkhali community to which she belongs. The Tehri royals are also considered as “Bolanda Badri” (the Living Badri ) as custodians of holy shrine of Badrinath by the rural masses and have been reaping electoral benefits since Independence.

Another interesting political battle is being fought in Nainital. With Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, the tall BJP leader refusing to contest this time, former Chief Minister Harish Rawat, a Congress general secretary, has succeeded in convincing the party to shift him to Nainital seat from Haridwar which he had represented in 2009, despite opposition from senior party leaders from the Kumoan region including leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly and Haldwani legislator Dr Indira Hariydesh.

Hailing from Almora district, Harish Rawat had shifted to Haridwar following Almora becoming a ‘reserved’ seat in 2009. He won the Haridwar seat in 2009 but his wife Renuka Rawat lost Haridwar in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. He is being opposed by BJP state unit chief Ajay Bhatt, both of whom had lost the 2017 Assembly polls.

For the Almora (Reserved) seat, the Congress has taken a calculated risk by pitching Pradeep Tamta, a sitting Rajya Sabha member against Ajay Tamta, Union Minister of state for Textiles. Pradeep Tamta still has two years of his Rajya Sabha term left and is a popular leader.

Another former Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank of the BJP will be defending his Haridwar seat. With the exit of Harish Rawat from Haridwar, the Congress has fielded Ambrish Kumar, a former legislator who had won the Assembly poll in 1996 during Uttar Pradesh days as a Samajwadi party candidate from Haridwar city. The BSP-SP combine which has sizeable influence due to Dalit and Muslims votes in Haridwar district has fielded Antriksh Saini as its candidate.

Uttarakhand returned a verdict against the ruling party in the state during the last two general elections. The Congress won all the five seats in 2009 Lok Sabha elections when BJP state government was headed by Maj. Gen. BC Khanduri (retd) in Uttarakhand while the BJP won all the five seats in the 2014 polls during the tenure of Harish Rawat of the Congress as Chief Minister.