Saturday, 12 February 2022 | GP Semwal | Pauri
The electoral contest in Kotdwar constituency appears to be mainly between the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Ritu Bhushan Khanduri and Congress candidate Surendra Singh Negi. However, BJP rebel Dhirendra Singh Chauhan contesting as an independent candidate could also make a difference in the vote share of the Congress and BJP candidates. A total of eleven candidates are contesting in the Kotdwar constituency. Along with BJP and Congress, candidates of Uttarakhand Kranti Dal, Aam Aadmi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Bahujan Mukti Party, Right to Recall Party and independent candidates are contesting the election from this constituency. The BJP is banking on sitting MLA of Yamkeshwar, Ritu Bhusan Khanduri in Kotdwar and expects to gain support on factors like her being the daughter of former CM Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri. The Congress has fielded former cabinet minister Surendra Singh Negi. In the 2017 Assembly election, Negi was defeated by then BJP candidate who recently joined the Congress- Harak Singh Rawat. Rawat had then defeated Negi by a margin of 11,318 votes, the highest margin among all constituencies of Pauri district in the election during what was considered to be a Modi wave in the state. Earlier, in the 2012 Assembly elections, Negi had defeated the then chief minister Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri in this constituency. Apart from the BJP and Congress candidates, BJP rebel Dhirendra Singh Chauhan contesting as an independent, AAP’s Arun Verma, UKD’s Mukesh Rawat and BSP’s Vikas Kumar are doing their bit to elicit the support of voters. The BJP and Congress have cadre votes in the constituency. According to observers, former cabinet minister Harak Singh Rawat may not be able to boost support for the Congress candidate. On the other hand, the BJP candidate has consolidated her position with party workers who were earlier supporting the rebel Chauhan starting to shift their support to her. Even as both the national parties intensify campaigning for their candidates, observers opine that the electoral contest is likely to be a close fight. Kotdwar constituency has total 1,16,903 voters out of which 57,501 are male, 57,340 female, 456 disabled voters and 2,057 service voters. The number of male and female voters is almost same and though the general opion is that many women voters support Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it remains to be seen whether this support gets extended to the BJP candidate in the Assembly election.
