BJP’s campaign pitch for the upcoming elections in Uttarakhand is a mix of development and youth appeal, with 45-year-old Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami leading from the front.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already sounded the poll bugle in the hill state with his visit to Rishikesh earlier this month to launch pressure swing adsorption oxygen plants in every district of the country and is set to do an encore next month with a pilgrimage to Kedarnath.
The BJP state executive committee has already declared that it will contest the elections under the leadership of Chief Minister Dhami, who assumed office in July, amid an intense power struggle within the party.
In March, the then chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, who had become unpopular with the party cadre, was shunted out by the BJP and Tirath Singh Rawat was brought in as his successor. The gaffe-prone Tirath had to make way for Dhami within a span of four months.
The BJP has planned door-to-door campaigns, reaching out to specific sections of the society through dedicated programmes, people who have benefited from various government schemes and outreach to the new voters with the youthful face of the chief minister.
Modi is expected to visit the shrine dedicated to Lord Shiva just before it closes for winter on November 6.
The prime minister is likely to inaugurate the Rs 250 crore Kedarpuri reconstruction project and lay the foundation stone of Phase II of the development works.
He is also set to inaugurate the redeveloped shrine of Adi Shankaracharya at Kedarnath and unveil a 12-feet high statue of the spiritual guru.
The statue of Shankaracharya in a sitting posture has been chiselled from Krishnashila stone by Mysuru-based sculptor Arun Yogiraj and weighs 35 tonnes. The statue was flown on-board a Chinook helicopter to Kedarnath earlier this month.
The government is also extending railway links into the hills both in the Garhwal and Kumaon regions of the state. Work is in full swing on building the rail link from Rishikesh to Karnaprayag, while the Centre recently approved Rs 28 crore for the survey of the Tanakpur-Bageshwar railway line in the Kumaon region.
BJP is also banking on the Rs 12,000 crore Chardham all-weather highway, likely to be completed next year, to earn some goodwill among the voters.
Home Minister Amit Shah is visiting Uttarakhand on October 30, days ahead of the prime minister’s tour to fine tune the party’s campaign for the Assembly elections.