The Wire team visited the Lal Kuan assembly seat, where former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat is contesting from for the first time.
A day before the polling, the septuagenarian Congress leader was busy campaigning in the constituency which is a hybrid mix of populations from the hills and plains. The support for Rawat is visible in the area. At a nukkad meeting on the outskirts of Haldwani, which comes in his constituency, Rawat talked about the Congress’s poll promise of Rs 500 gas cylinders and jobs to the unemployed after coming to power.
Speaking to The Wire on the sidelines of this meeting, Rawat attacked the BJP government. “By removing two chief ministers (Trivendra Singh Rawat and Tirath Singh Rawat) the BJP has murdered the people’s mandate. And the third chief minister, Pushkar Singh Dhami, loves mining (Khanan Premi). The rivers of Uttarakhand have been looted under Dhami’s regime, since he doesn’t know anything else.”
Answering a question about the effect of the Modi wave in Uttarakhand in 2022, Rawat said, “I am seeing a price rise wave in Uttarakhand. There is a wave of unemployment. There is a wave against misgovernance and corruption in Uttarakhand. There is a wave of anger among people against the zero-development recorded in Uttarakhand.”
Rawat is the chief of the Congress’s election strategy in Uttarakhand, and had lost the 2017 elections from two seats – Haridwar (Rural) and Kichcha in Udham Singh Nagar. In 2022, at the last minute, due to Congress infighting, Rawat was named to contest from the Lal Kuan seat even though he wanted to contest from Ram Nagar. In 2017, the Congress had fielded Harish Chandra Durgapal who was defeated by BJP candidate Navin Chand Dumka, but in 2022 both leaders were dropped by their parties. Now Rawat is contesting from the seat and BJP has fielded Mohan Singh Bisht, making it a typical Thakur leader battle.
Congress rebel Sandhya Dalakoti is also contesting as independent from the seat and is likely to make a dent into the Congress’s votes.
A majority of voters in the Lal Kuan seat are upbeat as Rawat, if he wins, will be the chief minister of Uttarakhand. “There is a possible tilt for him because everyone knows that if he wins, he will be the chief minister of Uttarakhand and this will increase the chances of overall development in the entire region,” said Vibhor Khandpal, a shopkeeper.