Dehradun, May 17
After the lull in internal infighting within Uttarakhand Congress during electioneering and the stunning victory of the Congress in all five seats in the state, knives will be out again in the run-up to the formation of the union council of ministers.

With a very strong case of representation of Uttarakhand in the union council of ministers, the three senior Congress leaders - Harish Rawat, Satpal Maharaj and Vijay Bahuguna - who won their respective seats have rushed to New Delhi to lobby to get a ministerial berth.

The three leaders have won the elections together for the first time and will be strong contenders for a ministerial berth at the Centre.

Harish Rawat, a former state Congress chief, had been thrice elected to Lok Sabha - in 1980, 1984 and 1989. After 20 years, he has again won - from the Haridwar Lok Sabha seat this time.

As state Congress president, he was instrumental in reviving the Congress in the first ever assembly polls held in February 2002 but lost the race for Chief Ministership to veteran ND Tiwari. However, to compensate him, he was sent to Rajya Sabha from 2003 to 2009.

Satpal Maharaj broke the jinx of losing repeatedly from the Pauri Garhwal seat, the home constituency of Chief Minister Maj Gen BC Khanduri (retd).

Satpal, who is a godman having lakhs of followers of his “Manav Dharma” across the country and abroad, had been a member of the union council of ministers. He was a Union Minister of State for Railways in the Inder Kumar Gujral government at the Centre in 1996.

Vijay Bahuguna, son of former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, won his first election from Tehri Garhwal during the by-election following the death of sitting BJP MP Manvendra Shah in 2007. He has regained the seat.

Bahuguna, a former judge of the Mumbai High Court, is closely linked to the Gandhi family. His sister Reeta Bahuguna Joshi is the president of the Uttar Pradesh Congress.

Interestingly, the Congress has long ignored the representation of Uttarakhand in the formation of the union council of ministers.

On the other hand, during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, the BJP had given representation to both Garhwal and Kumaon regions by making BC Khanduri and Bachi Singh Rawat ministers.

Congress insiders point that after the 2004 polls, the Congress had got only one seat from Nainital. There was a lot of pressure from allies to get adjusted in the council of ministers.

This time, since the Congress has done incredibly well, it is a possibility that Uttarakhand will get a representation in the union council of ministers.

Dehradun, May 17
With all the candidates of Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) - the biggest regional party of the state - failing to save their security deposit in the Lok Sabha elections, the party graph is at an all-time low.

The vote share of UKD has dipped from 43,899 in 2004 to 38,100 in this election. UKD president Dr Narain Singh Jantwal, who himself lost from Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar constituency, just managed to get 9,268 votes and remained at the fifth place.

Soon, senior party leaders will sit together and analyse what went wrong. But we admit that UKD should have withdrawn support from the BJP government before contesting — Virinder Mohan Uttarakhandi UKD chief spokesman

UKD is an alliance partner of BJP in the state government, with one of their legislator Diwakar Bhatt holding a ministerial portfolio. The party had decided to contest the elections after BJP refused to leave one seat for them.

However, the decision did not go well with the electorate, as majority of the people termed UKD as "opportunist".

Even the party rank and filed had questioned that it won't be morally right to contest the election without withdrawing support from the Khanduri government.

Now, with election results out, the party cadres have realised their mistake. The chief spokesman of UKD Virinder Mohan Uttarakhandi said: "In a few days, senior party leaders will sit together to analyse what went wrong. But we admit that UKD should have withdrawn support from the BJP government before contesting elections." Uttarakhandi said the party entered into alliance with BJP after the latter agreed to implement the nine-point agenda of UKD.

"Since no heed was paid by the state government regarding implementation of the agenda, there was great resentment among the party workers, which finally cost us dear," he asserted.

Interestingly, the mood in UKD cadres is not that somber. Party leaders feel that had BJP left one seat for UKD, they (BJP) won't have faced a humiliating defeat.

"In Almora (SC), BJP candidate Ajay Tamta lost by mere 6,950 votes, whereas UKD candidate Ranjit Vishwakarma got 11,039 votes.

“Had there been a tie-up between the two parties, BJP would have easily won the seat," said Uttarakhandi.

Dehradun, May 17
The verdict of the parliamentary elections for the hill state of Uttarakhand has come as a shocker for the ruling BJP. The party not only faced a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Congress but also lost its ground in 51 assembly segments of the state.

Two-thirds of the ministers in the BC Khanduri government have failed to get a lead in their respective assembly segments. From a total of 70 assembly constituencies in the state, the BJP managed to get ahead of Congress in just 19 constituencies.

As per the figures available with The Tribune, the BJP was way behind in all 14 assembly constituencies of the Haridwar parliamentary constituency. Besides, BJP candidates managed to take a lead only in six assembly segments of Tehri Garhwal, four of Pauri Garhwal, two of Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar and seven of Almora (SC).

BJP candidate from Pauri Garhwal Lt Gen TPS Rawat (retd) trailed in the assembly constituency represented by Chief Minister Maj Gen BC Khanduri (retd) and Health Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.

Likewise, BJP candidate from Almora, Ajay Tamta got around 7,000 less votes than Congress candidate in Pitthoragarh assembly constituency, represented by cabinet minister Parkash Pant.

Similarly, Tamta, who is a legislator from Someshwar assembly constituency, was 3,000 votes behind the Congress candidate. In Champawat constituency, represented by Beena Maharana, another BJP minister, the BJP candidate was behind the Congress.

BJP’s state president and the party candidate from Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar Bachi Singh Rawat lost Haldwani assembly segment to the Congress. Haldwani is represented by BJP minister Banshidar Bhagat.

BJP candidate from Tehri Garhwal, Jaspal Rana, stood at number two in Doiwala, represented by another BJP minister Trivendra Singh Rawat.

Similarly, the BJP failed in Haridwar assembly segment as well. Haridwar constituency is represented by Education Minister Madan Kaushik but the party candidate from Haridwar parliamentary constituency Swami Yatendranand Giri was behind the Congress.

“In wake of the fact that the BJP has lost the Lok Sabha elections badly, Chief Minister Khanduri should tender his resignation. The BJP has lost in 51 assembly segments which clearly reflects that the mandate is against the Khanduri government,” said Congress MLA from Laxman Chowk Dinesh Aggarwal.

Dehradun, May 17
With Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) managing a handsome vote share of 15.26 per cent in Uttarakhand, the party is all set to emerge as a major political power in the 2012 assembly elections in the state.

Not only did BSP candidates make the electoral battle on three parliamentary seats of Tehri Garhwal, Haridwar and Nainita-Udham Singh Nagar triangular, the party also managed to increase its vote share by 8.49 per cent, as compared to the 2004 general election.

While BSP got 6.77 per cent votes in 2004, this time the figure touched 15.26 per cent. Earlier, it used to be a bipolar contest in Uttarakhand but this time BSP nearly upset the political equations with their candidates pocketing “considerable” votes. While in Tehri Garhwal, BSP candidate Munna Singh Chauhan got 74,217 votes and remained at the third position, Mohammad Shahzad and Narayanpal pocketed 1,81,270 and 1,43,482 votes in Haridwar and Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar, respectively, to secure third place.

Presently, in the 70-member Legislative Assembly, there are eight BSP MLA’s - six from Haridwar and two from Udham Singh Nagar. In wake of the fact that the vote share of both Congress and BSP registered an increase, it is clear that the ruling BJP has lost 7.6 per cent its votes to the Congress and BSP.

According to political experts, unhappy with the ruling BJP, Dalits in Uttarakhand are constantly drifting towards BSP.

Experts also feel that going by the steep increase in the BSP vote share, the party is likely to be one of the key players in the 2012 assembly elections.

Interestingly, while the BSP vote share witnessed an upward trend, the BJP vote share suffered a major dent. From 40.98 per cent in 2004 elections, the BJP vote share dipped by 7.6 per cent and stood at 33.38 per cent this time.

The Congress vote share, on the other hand, increased by 4.41 per cent, whereas that of Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD), the biggest regional party of state, also decreased from 1.64 per cent to 1.22 per cent.

Besides, the total vote share of rest of the political parties in fray, including, SP, UKD, CPI (M) and Independents stood at mere 8.64 per cent.

Dehradun, May 17
REC Chandigarh team registered a thumping 76-run victory over Indian Air Force in the first 27th All-India Uttaranchal Gold Cup at Ranger Ground here today. Batting first, REC managed 215 runs in the allotted 35 overs. The team began on a shaky note as they lost their opener Indrajeet Singh when the team score was five runs.

First-down batsman Bageshwar Bisht too could not do much and was out when his score was eight runs.

Amrender Singh, who could only manage 16 runs, soon followed Bisht to the pavillion. It was run-a-ball half century by Kamal Wala that stabilised the REC innings.

Kamal smashed 63 runs off 64 balls hitting seven fours in his innings. Lower down the order, Ricky Singh contributed 29 runs off 17 balls.

For Indian Air Force team, Roshan and Showmik Chaterjee were the pick of the bowlers claiming two wickets each.

Chasing 216 for victory, Indian Air Force were all out for 139 runs in just 29.3 overs. Indian Air Force too began on a bad note as they lost their first wicket when the team score was zero.

PMS Reddy, along with BB Singh, helped their team recover from the early setback. Reddy made 33 runs off 45 balls and BB Singh scored 26 runs off 40 balls.

In the middle order, Showmik Chaterjee chipped in with a handy 30 runs off 30 balls. But thereafter, no other batsman showed any resistance and the whole team was dismissed for 139 runs.

For REC Chandigarh, Sonu was the leading wicket taker with three wickets while Ajay scalped two wickets.

Dehradun, May 17
The Dehradun girls team started their campaign against Haridwar City team with a thumping 32-10 win at the fourth Uttarakhand Sub-Junior State Basketball Tournament that commenced at Raja Ram Mohan Roy Academy here today.

Dehradun made a strong start making some good strategic moves.

They opened their account with a two-pointer scored by Ridhima. The Dehradun team went on scoring at regular intervals not giving their opponents any chance to get a foothold in the match.

The first quarter ended at 12-4 in favour of Dehradun.

In the second quarter, Dehradun completely overshadowed Haridwar City. Dehradun girls did all the scoring in the second quarter and took their points to 20.

In the last two quarters, Dehradun City team increased their lead by 12 points making the final score 32-10.

Ridhima was the top scorer for Dehradun with 12 points.

In another match in the girls category, Mussoorie beat Haridwar District 9-3.

Rehuka was the top scorer for Mussoorie with four points.

In the boys category, Dehradun beat Udham Singh Nagar 40-10.

Gaurav was the top scorer for Dehradun with 12 points.

In another match, Nainital beat Haridwar District 20-10. Abhay was the top scorer for the winners with 10 points.

Dehradun, May 17
After his party's humiliating defeat, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Maj Gen BC Khanduri (retd) today left for New Delhi. According to media cell of the BJP, Khanduri would be attending the meeting of the Chief Ministers of the BJP-ruled states on Monday. President of the State Media Advisory Committee Dr Devinder Bhasin said Khanduri reached New Delhi on Sunday evening and would be attending the meeting at the residence of the Leader of Opposition LK Advani on May 18.

He said the CM would most likely return on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Rajya Sabha MP and former Chief Minister Bhagat Singh Koshyari also left for New Delhi today. Although Koshyari did not divulge any details, it is learnt that he will give feedback about the party's defeat to the top brass of BJP, including party's national president Rajnath Singh.