The election commission’s announcement to advance Assembly polls by 15-20 days has come as surprise in Uttarakhand that left very little time for the two main parties -- the ruling BJP and Congress to finalise candidates for all the 70 seats.
The sources said both the parties are likely to shortlist candidates in a day or two before getting a seal of approval from the party high command.
Political leaders were expecting elections in the middle of February. It will be now an uphill task for all political parties to outsmart each other at the hustings.
The announcement of poll schedule came just a day after Rahul Gandhi’s impressive rally which was the biggest in recent years at Parade Ground here. In comparison to Gandhi’s rally, the last month show of BJP leader L K Advani during his rath yatra was a dampsquib in the same ground.
Though BJP is mainly banking on the issues of development and the Anna Hazare factor, Congress is using alleged scandals swirling around the government to settle score against its arch rival. Congress has also promised to bring a rail line to the hills of Uttarakhand.
Till now, emotive issues like atrocities committed on statehood activists and demand for a permanent capital in Gairsain have taken a backseat. In the 2007 elections BJP riding on the crest of an anti-incumbency wave had managed to form the government despite falling one seat short of simple majority in the 70-member house.
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Top leaders of both the parties are these days busy holding rallies to drum up support. Both the BJP and Congress have hired helicopters to cover the remote areas of the hill state. “We are thankful to our party high command for providing us a helicopter. We have already covered nearly 50 out of the total 70 constituencies of Uttarakhand,” said Harak Singh Rawat, leader of the opposition as flew to far-off places like Dharchula bordering Nepal to address his rallies. Rawat and other top Congress leaders in most of the rallies are attacking BJP for ignoring development works and allegedly siphoning off funds that had come from the centre for development. In his rallies, Rawat even claims that 419 alleged scandals had already taken place during the five year tenure of BJP.
On the other hand, chief minister B C Khanduri too is making best use of chopper as part of his election campaign.
Ever since he took over the reigns of the state on September 11, Khanduri had already taken nearly 175 cabinet decisions. He got praise from Anna Hazare for passing a strong Lokayukta Bill. In his image building exercise, Khanduri has embarked on scores of social sector schemes to lure voters. Five per cent interest subsidy on education and self-employment loans, free travel in government buses for girl students, houses and plots for urban poor living in slums and many, many more such announcements.
Besides, the Khanduri government has also recently razed some shops and buildings as part of the Rs 100 crore Chakrata Road widening project which is being seen as major development work in the city.
It will be interesting to see whether the BJP can complete this project before the elections.