Rahul Gandhi to visit Dehradun on 16 March
In a small state with just five seats in Lok Sabha, political movement has started to look prominent in Uttarakhand. On the grounds of organizational preparedness, even though the BJP is looking ahead to its rivals at the time of announcement, but in at least one area, the Congress has surely managed to increase its margin. It is that Congress national president Rahul Gandhi is the first big leader to reach Uttarakhand after the election schedule was announced. However, it must also be noted that Rahul’s visit to Dehradun on March 16 had already been decided before the dates were announced. In such a situation, this possibility can not be ruled out that Congress will declare its candidates till March 16.
The political mood of Uttarakhand is such that both the BJP and the Congress have won and lost a fair amount in the past elections. After being separated from Uttar Pradesh, the voters of Uttarakhand have been able to rely on these two national parties. There are very few instances where the inhabitants of the Devbhoomi voted in favor of someone other than these two parties.
In the eighteen years after the formation of the state, the non-BJP-non-Congress party candidates were successful only once in the five Lok Sabha seats in the three Lok Sabha elections. Samajwadi Party won the Haridwar Lok Sabha seat in the year 2004. If talk of the past decade, then in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, five seats had gone to Congress, while in the government in the state was BJP.
In the 2012 assembly elections, the Congress ousted BJP from power by winning one more seat than their rivals. The scenario in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections has been totally reversed. By the time Congress was elected in the state, the BJP made a clean sweep of the five seats. Although there was a Modi wave all over the country and Uttarakhand was not untouched by it, but the BJP later got a huge majority in the 2017 assembly elections and formed the government. The bottom line is that in the last seven years, the BJP has maintained unilateral dominance in Uttarakhand and this is also the biggest challenge before the Congress and its national president, Rahul Gandhi. In this Lok Sabha election, the Congress wants to end the BJP supremacy in any way. Under the same strategy, the Congress set a day-long visit for Rahul Gandhi.
Now because on Sunday the election date announcement was made, the importance of Rahul’s visit has increased significantly more than before. However, this new situation has created some quarrels for the Congress. Dissatisfaction is because the Congress has not yet declared a single candidate for one of the five seats, and in such a situation, it is hardly able to get the full mileage of its national president’s program.
By the way, the party president’s visit to Dehradun tour shows enthusiasm in the party, but insiders speculate that it would be better if Congress announces candidates for atleast 3 seats in Garhwal region. In this situation, the likelihood of this fact can not be denied that the Congress declares its candidates by March 16. These days the Congress party, which is preparing for Rahul’s program, is finalizing the issues which can be effective in Uttarakhand. The inputs related to the state are being gathered so that the national president can put the BJP in the dock.
