CM Dhami, head of Congress campaign committee Harish Rawat and CM face of AAP Col Kothiyal suffer defeats
The voters of Uttarakhand kept their past record of defeating the chief ministers and the chief ministerial faces intact in the assembly elections of 2022 also. In fact all the three most important leaders of the three political parties, the BJP, Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) who were the faces of their respective parties in the state suffered defeats from the constituencies they were contesting in the elections. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami under whom the BJP entered in the elections on the young CM slogan was defeated by the officiating president of Uttarakhand Congress Bhuwan Kapri by a margin of 6,759 votes in Khatima assembly seat. Similarly former chief minister Harish Rawat who was the head of the campaign committee of Uttarakhand Congress and the biggest face of the Congress here suffered a crushing defeat in Lalkuan assembly constituency. He was defeated by Mohan Singh Bisht of BJP by a margin of 17,527 votes. Colonel (Rtd) Ajay Kothiyal who was the chief ministerial candidate of the AAP suffered the fate akin to all other candidates of the party in Uttarakhand. In fact Kothiyal could not save his deposit from Gangotri assembly constituency as he secured only 5,998 votes to finish third behind Suresh Singh Chauhan of BJP who got 28,677 votes and Vijay Pal Sajwan of Congress who was second with 21,040 votes.
In the last assembly elections the then CM Harish Rawat lost from both the Kiccha and Haridwar (Rural) assembly seats. Similarly in the year 2012, the BJP contested the elections under the ‘Khanduri Hai Zaroori’ slogan but the CM himself was defeated by Surendra Singh Negi of Congress by a margin of 4,623 votes in Kotdwar. In the first assembly elections of the state which were held in the year 2002, Dinesh Agarwal a newcomer created one of the biggest political upset when he defeated first Chief Minister of Uttarakhand and senior BJP leader Nityananad Swami by a margin of more than 1500 votes from Lakshman Chowk assembly constituency.
