Garhwal Lok Sabha seat which once became popular because of rigging and reelection when political stalwart Bahuguna contested and won is set to witness interesting political developments shortly

In Uttarakhand, Garhwal Lok Sabha constituency is rated as one of a significant and hot seats , especially because the then political stalwart, former Uttar Pradesh’s outstanding chief minister and central minister several times who opposed tooth and nail the emergency of 1975 terming it as draconian and thereafter contested against Indira Gandhi’ s candidate CMS Negi defeating him despite the Garhwal election being rigged , postponed and held for the second time.

British Broadcasting News service then ( in 1982 ) used to broadcast the rigging of this election to aware the people of the internal happenings by the alleged hired goons of then ruling party who not only rigged several booths but also thrashed the voters of interior Garhwal.

Hemawati Nandan Bahuguna who was an independent candidate then against Indira Gandhi the then PM had won the Garhwal by-election despite heavy odds and challenges by around thirty thousand votes. He is indeed a towering and quintessential leader earlier but was never valued by the former PM thinking him to be her challenger always which was untrue. The entire central and state machinery were at work against Bahuguna then, to ensure his defeat by hook or by crook.

However, he later on shifted to Allahabad to lose at the hands of a political novice but a superstar of Bollywood then, Amitabh Bachchan.

Pauri Garhwal constituency, known as Garhwal Lok Sabha had several stalwarts as MPs from 1952 till date but majorly from Indian National Congress.

The journey of electoral politics that started after independence in 1952, saw the then education minister at the centre under Indira’s tenure Bhakti Darshan Singh as MP from 1952 to 1957 and then again as MP till 1962 followed by veteran Congress leader Pratap Singh Negi being elected from here till 1971 and again till 1977. Dr.Jaganath Sharma, a professor in Dehradun and close confidant of Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Jagannath Sharma won as a Janata Party candidate after it defeated Indira Gandhi Congress candidate badly.

However, after Bahuguna developed differences with Janata Party on dual membership issue of then RSS and erstwhile Jansangh leaders in Janata party, he left the JP government and joined Congress contesting from Pauri Garhwal constituency and winning hands down to again leave it having serious deep differences with the then PM Indira Gandhi to re contest as an Independent candidate defeating CMS Negi of Congress strongly backed by the then PM Mrs Gandhi and won with 30 thousand votes.

The Garhwal by-election which was postponed twice after the rigging of booths by the goons of the then ruling party were challenged by Bahuguna tooth and nail through Vijay Bahuguna, his son , then senior advocate to the then CEC Mr. Shakdhar who gave another date for reelection terming the election as null and void, with the then PM Indira Gandhi badly defamed in news and Bahuguna becoming a political hero.

Bahuguna’s dashing victory from Garhwal parliamentary seat became the banner news in all the newspapers of the country including channels like BBC highlighting it to the hilt .

However, when Bahuguna shifted to Allahabad in 1984 Chandra Mohan Singh Negi has won this seat as a INC and Janata Dal candidate , the election thoroughly covered by this journalist.

Thereafter from 1991 till date except for a single tenure from 1996 to 1998 , this seat was won by Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri twice ( fmr Uttarakhand CM) and former CM Tirath Singh Rawat after he was asked to resign as CM.

This happened so because after the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992 , BJP which was non entity in Uttarakhand consolidated its hold by polarising the majority community votes.

The Modi charisma further resulted in the saffron party repeating in the state in 2022 despite various ills, obviously banking on the Hindu polarised votes and Modi leadership.

Today Ram Temple’s construction is another trump card for BJP say the political analysts.

As the elections are just a month or two, near, both the political parties, Congress and BJP have started it exercise to shortlist its candidates. There are reports that out of the five parliamentary seats the BJP high command is likely to change its candidates on three seats or may be all.

But till now these are just speculations or rumours.

However, the Garhwal seat seems to be in doldrums for the sitting BJP MP Tirath Singh Rawat especially after the national dailies giving reports about the national BJP media in-charge Anil Baluni being asked/ pressurised to contest from this seat. Moreover he has recently allocated Rs.15 crores for setting up a mountain museum and planetarium at Pauri, further consolidating the fact that he is preparing ground for his contest from Garhwal Lok Sabha. In the recent past too he has allocated lit of funds for ICUs and during Covid arranged tremendous amount of Oxygen concentrators including tried hard for setting up a Cancer hospital in Garhwal etc.

Though Tirath Singh Rawat is the first term MP from Garhwal constituency as is union minister Ajay Bhatt from Nainital , other MPs are for the second term. There are also reports about former Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Rawat aspiring to contest from Pauri Garhwal. Though he is also interested from Haridwar seat.

However, if we try to analyse various sources about the prospective candidates of Congress from the Pauri Garhwal constituency, from where Manish Khanduri has lost badly last time securing just 22 to 28% votes and BJP more than 62% votes , the name of a new comer youth who was in the national election manifesto committee of Congress in 2019 and close to Rahul Gandhi Dr.Prem Bahukhandi is appearing to be a strong contender.

According to some reliable sources Dr. Prem Bahukhandi being youthful, intelligent, good in appearance and an orator as well is being considered to be a best choice especially being a fresh n youthful candidate.

There are reports that other contenders like former defeated MP candidate Manish Khanduri is not showing much interest to contest including the former state Congress chief Ganesh Godiyal. Moreover, till date there aren’t much credible claimers from this seat from Congress’s side reveal sources. Dr.Prem Bahukhandi is a P hd from JNU and had been proactive in various progressive movements of students and youths.