Election tempo builds up in Uttarakhand with present n former CMs claiming to form their respective governments. Election may turn Majority vs minority ?

The contest between two major parties of Uttarakhand viz Congress and BJP seems to be neck to neck with both the parties’ key leaders, one sitting chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and another in the race for the future Uttarakhand CM Harish Rawat claiming to form their respective governments in the hilly state with landslide majority.

While the over enthusiastic chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami is leaving no stone unturned to stage a come back with a bang, confidently banking on bringing more than sixty seats, his staunch rival and veteran Congress competitor Harish Rawat is claiming to form the Congress government with more than fifty seats.

While Harish Rawat has been proactively campaigning for the party single handedly with only two visits of the Congress party leaders viz Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi, the prime minister Narendra Modi had earlier visited Badrinath several times including his two massive public meetings at Dehradun and Haldwani including its union home minister Amit Shah, party chief Jai Prakash Nadda and Nitin Gadkari too campaigning extensively in Garhwal and Kumaun Mandals not only declaring schemes and projects worth 38 thousand crores but the UK CM too has through his more than 500 announcements declaring various populist measures tried to elicit the voters to a great extent.

And above all, the recent propaganda of the BJP CM Pushkar Singh Dhami regarding appeasement of minorities by Congress and its previous CM Harish Rawat allegedly granting a holiday for Jumme ki Namaz to minorities and assurance to establish muslim university in Uttarakhand, the charges strongly denied and refuted by Harish Rawat, compounded by alleged massive propaganda in social media doctoring the picture of Harish Rawat branding him as Harishuddin n Vice Chancellor of Muslim University etc have infact amounted to vitiate the atmosphere in Uttarakhand and the saffron party unambiguously making the election as Hindu Muslim say political analysts.

In several of his, speeches the chief minister has accused the former Congress CM as the leader of minorities but not doing the works of the other communities specifically pointing out about granting of holiday to Muslims for Jumme ki namaaz during his tenure while patting himself that the BJP government works for all.

The chief minister has been catagorically saying that the vote to BJP will the vote to Prime minister Narendra Modi who has done so much for Uttarakhand and would be doing in future as well, whereas the Congress leader and its chief election strategist Harish Rawat is assuring the voters to decrease the rates of domestic gas cylinder to Rs 500 which is currently at Rs. 900, having broken the backbone of the consumers apart from guaranteeing employment to youths and better health services etc. Moreover, the key leaders of Congress like Harish Rawat, State president Ganesh Godiyal and Pritam Singh are believed to be busy in their own constituencies rather than campaigning for other party candidates. The Congress party is primarily banking on skyrocketing inflation, inefficient governance of BJP, unemployment and massive migration to cities from hill including worst health services etc.

The Aam Admi Party on the other hand, which had pushed the once popular regional party Uttarakhand Kranti Dal at the third place in Uttarakhand has made several concessional announcements to impress the Uttarakhand electorates viz free electricity on three hundred units on monthly consumption, Rs one thousand monthly payment to women above eighteen years, Rs 5000 unemployment allowance to a youth of every family, giving employment to about one lakh youths in a years time, free electricity to farmers and free pilgrimage to senior citizens to Ayodhya, Ajmer Sharif, Golden Temple, Char Dham portals etc.

The AAP national convenor and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal too has addressed several public meetings in Mandal and Kumaon region including road shows and Deputy CM Manish Sisodia n health minister Satyendra Jain, Rakhi Birla, deputy speaker Delhi Assembly also organising road shows, meetings, and door to door campaign in Garhwal and Kumaon regions but are more busy and concentrated in Punjab.

The communal aspect of this campaign gaining momentum was witnessed when one of the party’s youth leader Tejender Pal Singh Bagga has openly violating the election Commission norms posted the doctored pictures of Congress leader Harish Rawat in social media including the pics of senior Congress leaders showing them in red muslim cap and white long beard with highly objectionable comments accusing these Congress leaders as Muslim leaders etc. An advocate and secretary of state Congress and four leaders, three general secretaries of state Congress and one president have complained to police and election Commission to take cognisance of this matter and take stringent action against the BJP leaders.

What is shocking and surprising about this sectarian tendency is that instead of apologising or expressing regret, the BJP Uttarakhand has come out with a tweet accusing the former CM Rawat of curbing their freedom of expression by using police pressure tactic. The tweet warns Rawat of his appeasement of minorities saying that come what may they will not let the culture of Uttarakhand be destroyed.

Meanwhile, the former IPS officer K. S. Jangpangi has said that it is good that veteran Congress leader n former VM Harish Rawat has clarified his stand on the issue of Muslim University in Uttarakhand. He said in his comment : It’s good that Harish Rawat has clarified the issue relating to opening of Muslim University in UK. If he had not clarified the matter, people would have believed it to be so. The concept of Muslim University any where in India is dangerous proposition more so in UK. He should reject this more vigorously as BJP is trying to communalise the election campaign and confuse UK electorates. Such false propoganda should be denied tooth and nail so that the falsehood of BJP is exposed. By such devious tactics BJP wanted to create confusion and disenchantment among congress voters and supporters. Good he has made his stand clear on the issue.