Uttarakhand is the northern state of India also known as the ‘Devbhumi’ (Land of the God). This is so because there are many of the major Hindu Pilgrims here in Uttarakhand. Well not just Hindus, but Uttarakhand is also a gateway for Tibet, which is a Jain’s pilgrim and ‘Hemkunt Sahib’ is also in Uttarakhand, which is a holy place for Sikhs. Also, Uttarakhand is also known for its natural beauty.
Earlier Uttarakhand was known as the ‘Uttaranchal Pradesh’.
Well, on November 9, 2000, Uttarakhand was declared as the 27th state of Republic of India and since then the state has never seen the stable government or if a call a stable CM. Except N.D. Tiwari, no other CM ever has completed its term in the state. There’s always been the shuffling of CM’s in the state and so happened last time. After the 2013 Disaster or we say floods in Uttarakhand, the government faced criticism over mishandling the situation after the floods. Then Harish Rawat who is the current CM was introduced as new Chief Minister as Vijay Bahuguna was asked to step down.
2017 will witness very important five assembly elections in 2017. However, now it is 2016 and the state of Uttarakhand will go to polls next year along with Punjab, Manipur, UttarPradesh and Goa. The political scenario is different in the state as the Congress lead government somehow managed to survive after its MLA’s quit the party and the party didn’t have the required numbers to stay in the power. Now Former Congress leader and Uttarakhand CM Vijay Bahuguna is with BJP and Congress is playing the victim card in the state.
Here are the results of 2012 Uttarakhand Assembly Elections: (Total 70 Seats)
| Political Party | Number of Seats Won |
| Indian National Congress (INC) | 32 |
| Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) | 31 |
| Bahujan Samaj Party | 3 |
| Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) | 1 |
| Others | 3 |
Schedule for the Elections in Uttarakhand:
However, there’re no official dates been announced so far by the Election Commission of India (ECI). But the state is expected to go for polls in early March or end of February. So once the official dates are been announced by ECI, we will update you with that.
As there were also the speculations that Harish Rawat could quit from the state and there could be early polls in the state. This was speculated as so that Congress can utilise the opportunity in the state by playing the Victim card against BJP and also could utilise the sympathy of the people of the state in their favour. But it is not looking to happen so far.
Major Political Parties in Uttarakhand:
- Indian National Congress (INC)
- Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP)
- Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)
- Others
Major Issues in the state:
Well, there are multiple issues in the state which will raise during the election campaigns. As being a state where natural disasters like floods and landslides are common, people are now miffed with the non-addressing of these issues and ask for accountability from authorities over the mismanagements.
Other than proper management for natural mishappenings, some of the other major issues to be addressed or we say important to the people are as follows:
- Unemployment
- Non-Development
- Poor Education system
- Poor state Infrastructure
- Political Stabilisation and many more
Expected Chief ministerial Candidates from Various Political Parties in 2017:
Congress is not looking united in the state as there is some opposition can be seen for Harish Rawat inside the party but the party has no other option than going with the face of Harish Rawat as CM Candidate for 2017 Elections. This is because INC has not other prominent faces for Uttarakhand than Harish Rawat.
However, BJP also has the same issue of not having a prominent face for CM Candidate for the elections in 2017. However, Vijay Bahuguna is now a part of the BJP, but BJP can’t afford to project him as CM Candidate. This is because this could lead to a split in the party so the only option BJP has to go without any face for CM Candidate.
Other Parties will also go without announcing any CM Candidate as BSP and UKD are not major competitors in the state but definitely can play a major role in the formation of government in case of the hung assembly after the upcoming assembly polls.
Current Political Scenario in Uttarakhand:
The current Political scenario is unfavourable for the ruling Harish Rawat-led government as a result of anti-incumbency. And that too was felt in 2014 General assembly elections when 2013 Floods came out as a major political issue and BJP utilised that completely and won clean swept Congress on all five Lok-Sabha seats in the state. As a result of which, Vijay Bahuguna was asked to step down to introduce Harish Rawat as the new CM.
Now the current scenario is unfavourable for Congress and BJP both as the confusion can be seen among the common voters. People of the state have a sympathy with Harish Rawat but that could turn out into votes or not, only time will tell. But yes anti-incumbency could benefit BJP somehow.
Mayawati’s BSP and Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) is looking gaining some ground in the state as they could see some gain in their number of seats in the state.
What Opinion Polls has to say?
Well, so far there is a swing among the voters can be seen easily. So to predict anything about the results in the state is looking like a difficult task for the Political Pundits or to say them ‘Political experts.’ Though there have been two opinion polls conducted so far but let us mention that these are also too early to understand the political mood of the people.
These polls, however, predicted clear majority to BJP.
The Results of the Opinion Polls were as following:
| Political Parties | Seat Projection according to a Local news channel | Seats Projections according to India TV-C Voter Survey |
| INC | 07 | 20-24 |
| BJP | 63 | 34-38 |
| BSP | 00 | 06-10 |
| UKD | 00 | 2-3 |
| Others | 00 | 1-2 |
As you also can feel the huge difference between the two opinion polls and that is sufficient to prove the confusion among the voters and also tells that common people of the state are not ready to choose between Congress and BJP. But the only major factor in the upcoming elections is the youth in the state, Youth is going to play a key role in the upcoming elections.
However, for all the updates related to the upcoming elections in the Uttarakhand, stay tuned with as any of the updates will come out we will keep you updated with that.
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