BJP dislodges Congress in Uttarakhand; wins 57 seats out of 70

Among the top names who lost elections in state include Ajay Bhatt (BJP President), Kishore Upadhyay (Congress President), Harish Rawat (Chief Minister), Cabinet Ministers – Harish Durgapal, Dinesh Dhane, MP Naithani, Nav Prabhat, SS Negi, Dinesh Agarwal, Rajendra Bhandari.

As per current trends, the BJP is leading on 56 of 70 seats and the Congress is ahead on 12 seats.

Nearly a dozen prominent leaders of the Congress had switched sides to the BJP ahead of the elections and at least some of them do harbour chief ministerial ambitions.

With the BJP set to claim victory in Uttarakhand, the hunt for the chief minister begins. There were also alleged reports about property he had acquired during his stint as CM. The BJP was leading, but by a slender margin of 148 votes.

While the vote share of the Congress stood at around 33 per cent, which was more or less same when compared to the 2012 election, the saffron’ party’s votes was about 45 per cent.

The Congress has got 11 seats and Independents have won two.

Chief Minister Harish Rawat is trailiing from both his seats in Haridwar Rural and Kichha constituencies. Besides, a possible internal sabotage might have worked against him especially by those who didn’t leave the party along with MLAs who shifted their loyalty to the BJP but were terribly disillusioned with Rawat’s functioning.

This is also to be underlined that Rawat had become the first state CM to have contested from two Assembly constituencies.

After a campaign dominated by rhetoric, unlikely alliances, polarization and defection, voters across Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa have sealed the fate of 7,152 candidates that are contesting for the 690 seats on offer.

When asked about the issue, BJP general secretary and in-charge of the party’s affairs in Uttarakhand, Shyam Jaju, told DNA, “Whoever comes into the party are members of the pariwar”.