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MANDATE 2012
5 seats each for BJP and Congress
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Congress emerges single largest party with 32 seats
UKD (P) leaders demoralised as party fares poorly
Birender Singh meets Alva
Shakti Mohan dances her way into people’s hearts
CPI leader’s wife dies in accident
Governor’s greetings on Holi
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MANDATE 2012
Dehradun, March 6 Khanduri, who was brought to the fore by the central leadership just six months before the election, not only failed to deliver the state to the BJP but was defeated by S.S Negi on the Kotdwara seat. Chief Minister Khanduri, who was projected as an upright, honest administrator, and even endorsed by Anna Hazare after he brought the Lokayukta Bill, failed to click with the people of Uttarakhand. A few kilometers away, his bete noire former Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal, who was allegedly removed from the post of chief minister after his name figured in the Kumbh Mela scam, posted convincing win over his nearest rival Hira Singh Bisht of the Congress on the Doiwala Assembly seat. While the BJP tried to figure out what went wrong for the party’s top leader, the political pundits, too, are baffled at the neck-and-neck and race between the Congress and the BJP. “No doubt, the BJP managed to put up a fight and stop the Congress in it’s tracks, we are not sure who should be credited for this BJP’s performance. At this stage we cannot say if the Khanduri factor worked for the BJP. If it were so, he would have won his Kotdwara seat,” said a top BJP leader. After the BJP party’s campaign slogan, “Khanduri Hai Zaroori,” came unstuck at least for Khanduri, Nishank was quick to point out that had there been no change in the leadership, the BJP could have performed better. “We could have performed better, and got more seats if we had not changed the leadership midway,” said Nishank today at the counting centre, soon after his victory from Doiwala. Soon after the elections, both the leaders had hurled charges of sabotage against each other and had even put up their case with the BJP central leadership in Delhi. Khanduri has lost the Kotdwara Assembly seat. Former Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and BJP chief BS Chufal have won from Didihaat and Uttarakhand Assembly seats. Speaker Harbans Kapoor has won his seat from Dehradun Cantt. The winners are likely to throw their hats in the ring for the post of chief minister if the BJP stake claims for forming the next government. Significantly, some of the heavyweights from the BJP perceived to be close to Chief Minister Khanduri, too, lost the election. BJP Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prakash Pant (Pithoragarh), Agriculture Minister Trivender Singh Rawat (Raipur), Irrigation Minister Matbar Singh Kandari (Rudraprayag) and Education Minister Balwant Singh Bhoriyal (Kapkote), too, lost the election. However, in comparison with the Congress, the BJP managed to salvage for itself some respect despite the bitter infighting between the top two leaders, who never came together on one platform and were even suspicious of each other’s motives.
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5 seats each for BJP and Congress
Similarly, Dinesh Agarwal of the Congress and Pritam Singh of the same won the elections for the third time. Former Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, who won from a Doiwala Assembly seat, defeated his nearest rival of the Congress Hira Singh Bisht by a margin of 1272 votes. Uttarakhand speaker Harbans Kapoor polled a total of 29,719 votes while his rival from the Congres Devinder Sethi polled a total of 24,624 votes on the Dehradun Cantt Assembly seat . Similarly former Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank from Doiwala Assembly seat polled a total of 23448 votes, while his rival from the Congress Hira Singh Bisht polled a total of 22176 votes. On the other hand first timer Rajkumar from the Congress won the prestigious Rajpur (ST) assembly seat by a margin of 3070 votes. He polled a total of 28291 votes, while his rival of the BJP Ravinder Kataria polled a total of 25221 votes. The BJP Cabinet Minister Trivender Singh Rawat was defeated by the first timer Umesh Sharma of the Congress by a margin of 1220 on the Raipur Assembly seat. Rawat polled a total of 23747 votes while Trivender Singh Rawat 22527. On the Dharampur Assembly seat Congress leader defeated his nearest rival Prakash Suman Dhyani of the BJP by 9420 votes. Dinesh Agarwal polled a total of 37884 votes while Dhyani polled a total of 28464 votes. Due to Delimitation Agarwal had changed his assembly seat and fought the assembly election from the newly created seat of Dharampur. The first time Congress candidate Rajpal Kharaola who had the blessings of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi was defeated by Prem Chand Agarwal from the Rishikesh assembly seat. Prem Chand Agarwal won the Rishikesh assembly seat for the second time by a margin of 7271. Agarwal polled a total of 29090 votes and Kharola 21819. Two time winner of the Congress Jot Singh Ghunsola was defeated by the BJP candidate Ganesh Joshi from the Mussoorie assembly seat. Ghunsola polled a total of 18321 votes while Joshi 28097. Similalry Congress leader Pritam Singh of the Congress won the Chakrata (ST) assembly seat by a margin of 6654 votes. He won the seat for the third time since the creation of state. Pritam Singh polled a total of 33187 votes while Munna Singh Chauhan (Janwadi party) polled 26533 votes. On the Sahaspur seat first timer Sahadev Pundir of the BJP defeated his rival Aryender Sharma and protégé of former Chief Minister N.D Tiwari of the Congress by a margin of 5490 votes. Pundir polled a total of 26064 votes and Aryender 20574. Nav Prabhat of the Congress defeated his nearest rival Kuldeep Kumar of the BJP by a margin of 9857 vote on the Vikas Nagar assembly seat. The congress candidate polled a total of 32742 votes and the BJP candidate 5490 seats. In most of the 10 Assembly seats o there were 14 rounds of counting and on two occasions the counting was stopped on the Cantt and the Raipur seat after malfunctioning in the Electronic Voting Machine. (EVM). In comparison to the Congress party most of the BJP candidates received more service postal Ballots. Besides dedicating their wins to the party workers and the people of their constituencies the winners led a subdued victory procession in view of the prohibitory orders in place.
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Congress emerges single largest party with 32 seats
Dehradun, March 6 While the Congress emerged as the single largest party having 32 seats, the ruling BJP was a close second with 31 seats. Being the single largest party, the Congress would be staking it’s claim to form the next government in the state but they also need support of at least four more legislators to muster up a majority in the House. The Congress hopes that it would be able to manage three Independents who are Congress Party rebels in it’s fold to reach the half way mark. Mantri Prasad Naithani, who won as an Independent from Devprayag Assembly seat was a Congress minister in the Tewari Cabinet from 2002 to 2007 but was denied a ticket this ticket. Similarly, Harish Chander Durgpal from Lal Kuan and Dinesh Dhanai from Tehri Assembly segments are also Congressmen who fought as an Independents after being party nominations. Birender Singh, general secretary and in-charge Uttarakhand Congress affairs, said that all secular foces would be united to form the party. Insiders claimed that already contacts have been established with these Independent legislators to seek their support. In the 2007 Assembly polls, BJP had also won 33 seats but managed to get the support of three-member UKD and three Independents to get a majority
in the House.
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UKD (P) leaders demoralised as party fares poorly
Dehradun, March 6 The party candidate from Yamunotri, Preetam Singh Panwar, has won, whilst other three promising candidates, founder-president Kashi Singh Aeri lost from Dharchula, sitting MLA Pushpesh Tripathi from Dwarhaat and NS Jantwal from Kaladungi lost. Preetam Singh had won the same seat in year 2002 and lost by a margin of only 17 seats in 2007. This party which won four seats in the Assembly election of year 2002 came down to three seats in 2007, and now has reduced to merely one. In 2007 BJP fell short of majority. It took the support of three candidates of UKD and gave the position of a Cabinet minister to Diwakar Bhatt. Despite being the only regional party which played the most important role in fighting for the formation of the state, UKD could never reap the benefit of its contributions and has been falling victim to the intra-party frictions and divisions. The president of breakaway group UKD (D), which split up in December last year, Diwakar Bhatt, despite fighting from the BJP ticket and symbol, has lost from Devprayag, and his associate sitting MLA Om Gopal Rawat, too, lost from , Narender Nagar. Bhatt had been accused of leaving rest of the party leaders high and dry after deciding to fight on BJP ticket. BJP, too, gave ticket to only Bhatt and Rawat. Given to this the split-up group was further divided, though the splinter part headed by Luxman Singh Chufal could not get recognition and complete other formalities for the group. UKD (P) President Trivender Singh Panwar, too, had been blamed for thwarting all the attempts to forge a regional front which, though constituted, crumbled under the weight of fights on seat allocation among constituent members, which could give some challenge to the mighty force of Congress and BJP. Panwar castigated both these parties for his party’s dismal performance. He said; “Both BJP and Congress influenced the voters with the lure of lucre and liquor, which a cash-strapped UKD (P) could ill-afford. If we had these resources, we, too, would have fared well,” he said. He also added that despite the disappointment, the party activists were prepared to make a fresh start once again to lay a concrete foundation of the party for the next general and Assembly elections. The party candidate, however, differed. President of the party’s women’s wing and candidate from Mussoorie Pramila Rawat said: “The party has slipped from four to three and now to one seat in the respective Assembly elections. Nothing worse could happen with it.” Om Uniyal, former state president, UKD (D), said: “Had Diwakar Bhatt fought from the ticket and symbol of his own party, he would have certainly done much better. He faced stiff opposition from BJP itself from Devprayag and suffered a shameful drubbing. In comparison to him, Om Gopal Rawat gave a tough fight till the last.” The party had a bitter past of splits. In 1996, Diwakar Bhatt and Puran Singh Dangwal, who later moved to BSP, divided the party and became presidents of the respective factions. The split was generated, given to Bhatt’s arbitrariness in holding his separate rallies during the time of struggle for state formation. Second split was engineered in 2003 when Bhatt as president of the party did not let the party election, mandatory after two years, take place and also expelled seniormost leaders Bipin Tripathi, Ved Uniyal, Kashi Singh and Trivender Panwar from the party. Given to this, the party split up in two factions, headed by Bhatt and the late Bipin Tripathi, respectively. In 2005 the party was unified but ego hassles began between Trivender Singh Panwar and Bhatt, and reached the boiling point in December 2011, when unhappy with BJP’s sincerity to follow the common minimum programme, Panwar, president of the party, withdrew support to the BJP but Bhatt remained adamant on sticking with BJP. In January Bhatt claimed that the party led by him was real UKD. In January this year, Election Commission of India gave different names and symbols to both the factions, freezing the original symbol of the party, which was a big jolt to the party.
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Birender Singh meets Alva
Dehradun, March 6 Birender Singh, Vijay Bahguna, Congress MP from Tehri Garhwal, Uttarakhand Congress chief Yashpal Arya, newly elected legislators, Dinesh Aggarwal, Umesh Sharma and Suryakant Dhasman, Uttarakhand, Congress vice-president, met Governor Alva for more than half an ahour. Suryakant Dhasmana told media persons after the meeting that it was a courtesy call and the Congress leaders apprised her of the latest political situation and about Congress emerging as the single largest party. “It was not a call to stake claim to form the government but a courtesy
call,” he added.
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Shakti Mohan dances her way into people’s hearts
The Tribune caught up with the dancer-turned-actress in a candid interview while she was here in Dehradun for the promotion of ‘Dance India Dance Little Masters.’ “Dancing is no more a leisure stuff now but the youngsters are pursuing it as a career. Before I won the title, my father always considered classic style as the only dance form, while others mere exercise or gymnastics. But I am happy that my diligent endeavours not only won me recognition but has indeed changed my dad’s perception towards different dancing styles,” she quipped. Shakti is a contemporary dancer who emerged from the school of Indian choreographer, Terence Lewis. She has a brief appearance on the video for the title song of the film ‘Tees Maar Khan’ and has several projects in the pipeline. She had just shot an item number for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s upcoming film ‘Rowdy Rathore’ and said: “The experience of working with Bhansali ji was like a dream come true. I would look forward to versatile roles in films rather than being typecast as an item dancer in Bollywood. I am also doing a film directed by choreograher-turned-director Remo D’Souza.” Having completed masters in political science from St Xavier’s College, Shakti was planning to become an IAS officer before her appearance on DID. She has studied at Birla Balika Vidyapeeth, Pilani, and has graduated with a diploma in dance from Terence Lewis Dance Foundation Scholarship Trust.
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CPI leader’s wife dies in accident
Dehradun, March 6
She was taken from Coronation Hospital to CMI Hospital at night; from there too she was shifted to Himalayan Institute, Jolly Grant. In the morning, she died because of excessive internal bleeding and lack of timely medical care. Their only daughter Tanya, a bank officer who got transferred from Chandigarh to Dehradun on the day of accident, was grief stricken.
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Dehradun, March 6
Dehradun, March 6