JOIN USBJP grapples with anti-incumbency, Cong with leadership deficit
The BJP’s poll plank is development and performance, which are a far cry in this hill state.
A slew of foundation stones laid in the last month or so topped a barrage of sops announced by the government, giving a glimpse of the tearing hurry the incumbent BJP government is in ahead of elections on January 30. The BJP faces anti-incumbency, and a lot of what needed to have been done much earlier is now being practised. The fight to occupy the treasury benches in Uttarakhand, a small hill state carved out of Uttar Pradesh in 2000, has largely been a bipolar contest between the Congress and the BJP.
This tenure of the BJP has been particularly amusing, if not curious. It is perhaps the lone state where the saffron party changed its chief minister thrice in five years, which leaves a lot for the BJP to answer on its “indecision” on top state leaders and their performance.
Interestingly, the BJP’s poll plank is development and performance. Maj Gen B C Khanduri was sworn in as chief minister in 2007. Midway through his term, the BJP high command replaced him with Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank. Just six months before the elections, Khanduri was given back the reigns. Khanduri’s government is now in an overdrive seeking to make most of whatever little time is left for the government. Uttarakhand under Khanduri became the first state to enact a more-or-less Lokpal-like bill on the format suggested by Anna Hazare. The BJP is banking on the voter sentiment for Anna and hopes team Anna will help the party sail through.
Development of infrastructure, roads, power supply and reforms are a far cry in the hill state. The Congress’s anti-BJP rhetoric has its roots in the poor state of affairs in the state under the saffron party rule. Corruption is a big issue for the Congress and the poll bugle sounded by Rahul Gandhi last week at a rally in Uttarakhand made no bones about it. Rahul Gandhi even compared Uttarakhand with Karnataka in corruption. “Both states are in competition in corruption and the competition is which of the two can loot the most,” he said.
The Congress list of allegations are plenty and has left the BJP jittery. Congressmen say a lot of money was sent by the Union Government to the state for the Mahakumbh mela held in 2010 but even the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report had indicted the state government. They point towards the scandal in the allotment of hydro-electric projects where a single company was allotted 14 projects. The BJP has 36 seats in a house of 70. The Congress has 20 MLAs while the BSP has eight MLAs. The House has three MLAs of the UKD and three independents.
The delimitation exercise has left fewer hill seats, which in no way has pleased voters. There is a growing disenchantment among people in this young state, who feel they were better off as part of UP. Issues of divide between plains and hill region have not been addressed so far. Even some basic services, like ration cards to people are not available for over five months in the state capital.
The opposition Congress has a lot to worry about the face of the party in the state. Controversial N D Tiwari was the lone Congress CM the state had. He’s not a member of the party anymore. The state president Yashpal Arya, MP Harish Rawat and Vijay Bahuguna, an MP, could fill the vacuum.