<\/p>\n
Riding high on \u2018Hindutva\u2019 and anti-Muslim plank, BJP sweeps Uttarakhand civic elections<\/p>\n
S.M.A.KAZMI<\/p>\n
Dehradun, Jan 27<\/p>\n
With ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sweeping the civic elections in Uttarakhand, it has become evidently clear that aggressive \u2018Hindutva\u2019 \u00a0overrides all other issues in the state which is the new \u2018Hindutva\u2019 laboratory espoused by the \u2018Sangh Parivar\u2019. Riding high on the planks of implementing Uniform Civil Code (UCC), fighting \u2018tough\u2019 battles against \u2018Love Jehad\u2019, \u2018Land Jehad\u2019 and \u2018Thook Jehad\u2019 and preserving the demography of the \u2018Devbhoomi\u2019 in the civic election campaign, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami again proved that his anti-Muslim rhetoric and aggressive \u2018Hindutva\u2019 is paying political dividends in this upper caste Hindu majority state of Uttarakhand. Before polls, there was announcement by him for a through probe of ‘Madrassas’ in the state which BJP state governments had announced upteem times in the past eight years. With this thumping\u00a0 victory, BJP would be a running a \u201cTriple Engine\u201d government in the state.<\/p>\n
The ruling BJP swept the civic polls by winning ten out of total eleven Municipal Corporations in the urban centres of the state. The sole independent who won the newly created Srinagar Garhwal Municipal Corporation is wife of a die-hard RSS worker who had been leading the anti-Muslim campaign in Garhwal hills for the past sometime but decided to fight independently after denied party nomination.<\/p>\n
Another political lesson that has again been reiterated by the people was that there was no consideration for those who fought for the separate state of Uttarakhand despite loud public pronouncements and chest thumping by the political, social and educated class of the state about reverence to the statehood agitators. Two of the leading \u2018Andolankaris\u2019 ( statehood agitators) who fought election on Congress tickets were defeated like the poor Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD), a regional political outfit which spearheaded the statehood agitation but stand political decimated again in these polls.<\/p>\n
Virender Pokhriyal, the Congress candidate for the Mayoral post of prestigious Dehradun Municipal Corporation lost to Saurab Thapliyal of BJP by a margin of over one lakh votes. Saurab Thapliyal secured 241778 votes while Virender Pokhriyal got only 1,36483 votes. Interestingly, half of the votes Congress polled were from minority Muslim community. Similarly, Lalit Joshi, another \u2018Andolankari\u2019 who fought on Congress ticket for the mayoral post of Haldwani lost to Gajraj Singh Bisht of BJP by a margin of more than 3000 votes.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, Narendra Singh Negi, one of all time great iconic Garhwali singer who is highly loved and respected, gave his blessings to Virender Pokhriyal and Dinesh Chander alias \u2018Masterji\u2019 , an independent Mayoral candidate from Rishikesh, But both lost election, again clearly showing that any other sentiment than \u2018Hindutva\u2019 would not work politically in this new laboratory of rightwing after Gujarat.<\/p>\n
Uttarakhand \u00a0BJP state government led by Dhami implemented the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) to become the first state in the country to implement such a law as per the agenda of the BJP\/Sangh Parivar in the country.\u00a0 Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami launched of the official portal to register marriages and live \u2013in relationships slated tomorrow. During the civic election poll campaign,the main opposition Congress had opposed the cabinet decision on UCC and termed it as violation of model code of coduct for the polls but nobody listened.<\/p>\n
Since, he took over as Chief Minister in 2021 there has been consistent anti-Muslim campaigns under his leadership in the shape of \u2018Love Jehad\u2019, \u2018Land Jehad\u2019, \u2018Mazar Jehad\u201d and \u2018Thook Jehad\u2019 and minority Muslim community had been targeted on various pretexts throughout the state before and after Lok Sabha 2024 elections and even made to flee from some places in Garhwal hills in 2024.<\/p>\n
During the civic election campaign, Chief Minister Dhami and senior BJP leaders charged opposition Congress of allowing \u2018Jehadis\u2019 to settle in \u2018DevBhoomi\u2019 Uttarakhand without any concrete evidence and proof as part of \u2018hate mongering\u2019 against Muslims.<\/p>\n
Apart from Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami who has been leading the aggressive \u2018Hindutva\u2019 charge and campaigned throughout the state, the Mayoral candidate taking a cue from him also resorted to complete anti-Muslim rhetoric. Gajraj Singh Bisht from Haldwani, a RSS worker, publicly said that he was fighting elections for protection and propagation of the \u2018Sanatan\u2019 and do not want \u00a0votes from \u2018Anti-Sanatani\u2019\u00a0 forces. The polarising message went home and a popular \u00a0and hard working leader like Lalit Joshi lost by a narrow margin.<\/p>\n
Similar tactics were resorted to by BJP candidate Deepak Bali who fought and won the Mayoral post of Kashipur town. He was strident against the minority community in his campaign which was boosted by a campaign visit of Chief Minister Dhami.<\/p>\n
The BJP also secured a narrow win by 17 votes from newly created post of Mayor of Pithoragarh Municipal Corporation. Kalpana Devlal of BJP defeated Monika Mahar, an independent and a rebel Congress candidate and a close relative of Pithoragarh Congress legislator Mayukh Singh Mahar, who openly revolted against his party and supported Monika Mahar. Ajay Verma won the Mayor seat from Almora. The BJP won the Mayoral seats of Rishikesh, Haridwar, Roorkee, Rudrapur and Kotdwar. The Congress could draw some consolation by winning few municipal councils in smaller towns.<\/p>\n
The divided, fractured, demoralised Uttarakhand Congress has been given another deadly political defeat by the BJP\/RSS combine but the senior Congress leaders were not seen doing that kind of leg work as shown by Chief Minister Dhami. The Uttarakhand Congress leader are afraid to take on BJP and \u2018Sangh Parivar\u2019 on their anti-Muslim vilification campaign which is getting bolder by the day as it is paying politically. Rather these senior Congress leader have reconciled to the ground political realities and contented to play second fiddle after a string of electoral defeats since 2017. With disinterested central Congress party leadership looking the other way, the state unit has been leased out to such state leaders who are stumbling from one defeat to another and weakening the party further. The Congress general secretary incharge Kumari Selja was missing during the civic elections and the earlier three assembly bypolls held last year. The civic election results are a last wakeup call for the beleaguered Congress to set its\u2019 house in order ahead of the next state assembly polls of 2027.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, Pushkar Singh Dhami riding high on his electoral successes, has emerged as a new generation hero of \u2018Hindutva\u2019 politics \u00a0who is being projected all the country in different state assembly polls.<\/p>\n
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami in his congratulatory message said , “Heartiest congratulations to all the winning candidates of BJP. People have elected capable public representatives. Now it is the job of all the elected representatives to speed up development in their respective areas and strengthen the system. Our aim is to implement the concept of clean and green city on the ground through municipal bodies so that tourists coming to the state from across the country and abroad return with positive and inspiring experiences.”<\/p>\n
A total of 65.4 per cent urban voters exercised their votes in the polling for 11 municipal corporations, 43 municipal councils, and 46 nagar panchayats held by ballot papers on January 23.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Riding high on \u2018Hindutva\u2019 and anti-Muslim plank, BJP sweeps Uttarakhand civic elections S.M.A.KAZMI Dehradun, Jan 27 With ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sweeping the civic elections in Uttarakhand, it has become evidently clear that aggressive \u2018Hindutva\u2019 \u00a0overrides all other issues in the state which is the new \u2018Hindutva\u2019 laboratory espoused by the \u2018Sangh Parivar\u2019. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,33,1284,91,56,59],"tags":[3037,3059,2540,2740,2262,3058,2299,3063],"class_list":["post-6339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-international","category-international-political-national","category-national","category-politics","category-uttarakhand","tag-amarjeetsinghuttarakhandcongressspokesperson","tag-garimadasauniuttarakhandcongressspokesperson","tag-suryakantdhasmanaseniorvice-presidentuttarakhandcongress","tag-uttarakhand-congresschiefkaranmahra","tag-uttarakhandbjp","tag-uttarakhandcivicelections","tag-uttarakhandcongress","tag-uttarakhandcongressvice-presidentdhirendrapratap"],"yoast_head":"\n