Same old story of 2019 repeated in Lok Sabha polls of 2024 in Kumaon  

Same old story of 2019 repeated in Lok Sabha polls of 2024 in Kumaon

B.D.Kasniyal

Pithoragarh, June 5

It was the same old story again in the Lok Sabha election results of two seats from  Kumaon region of Uttarakhand. Even the defeat margin of the rival candidate against ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) remain the same as it was during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls for the two seats of Almora and Nainital.

The overall lethargy, inept leadership and unwillingness of Congress leadership in the state remained the main factor in the humiliating defeat of the party for the third consecutive time in a row on both these seats.

“The Congress party campaign in Nainital- Udham Singh Nagar seat was marred by wrong choice of candidates and inability of state Congress leadership to neither connect with the common people not enthuse the party cadres coupled with the Modi factor igh enthusiasm as they complained of his been not remained the major cause of their decimation,” said Rajiv Pandey,a senior journalist based in Nainital.

Ajay Bhatt of BJP polled a total of 772671 votes while his rival Congress candidate Prakash Joshi polled a total of  438123 votes out of  total valid votes of 1255691 polled in Nainital-US Nagar seat in this election.

Ajay Bhatt, victorious BJP candidate from Nainital attributes his victory to popularity of Modi and voters affection towards him.”I have been working continuously towards solving problems of constituency, like getting final approval for Jamrani Dam, bringing AIIMS in my constituency and granting several new railway projects. All these factors worked well for BJP,” said Ajay Bhatt.

According to Rajiv Pandey, Congress party could have worked hard as shown by party workers in Jaspur and Haldwani assembly segments but failed miserably to attract voters elsewhere as Congress state leadership completely failed in putting up a decent fight .

On Almora seat, the margin of defeat also remained almost same as it was in 2019. “The main reason of Congress defeat was popularity of Prime Minister Modi amongst beneficiaries of government scheme specially among women coupled with lacklustre campaign by a divided Congress party,” said Shekhar Dwivedi, a journalist based in Almora.

It was a known fact that Congress party workers were not willing to work as evident from the fact that 8000 copies of ‘Nyaya Patras’ a manifesto of the party that were sent from Delhi remained packed in Congress office and were not distributed. Now the Congress leaders are ina  quandary to dispose it off .”Had it reached voters in the villages it could have influenced the voters but Congress workers and leaders did not even did not care to distribute it in Almora,” said Shekhar.

Political observers believe that Congress leaders specially in Uttarakhand always wanted to encash on the anti-incumbency of the ruling party and did not want to work at the grass root to strengthen their organisation. On the other hand RSS/BJP with  rich resources are spread throughout with their RSS run Saraswati Shishu Mandir schools all over the state. “The Congress party as an opposition completely failed to convey their message to the masses,” said L.L. Verma, a retired professor of political science from Kumaon University.

Verma was of the opinion that it would be an uphill task for Congress party to get organisational efficiency like that of BJP.” The so-called seasoned leadership of Congress party led by senior leaders Harish Rawat, Pritam Singh and Yashpal Arya completely failed to enthuse the party workers and voters.