Friday, 11 March 2022 | OP Agnihotri | Lalkuan
Veteran Congress leader and former chief minister Harish Rawat was evidently unable to gauge the pulse of the voters in Lalkuan Assembly constituency. Though Rawat had made statements in the recent past making it appear as if he was preparing to become the next chief minister of Uttarakhand, he was defeated by a margin of 17,527 votes by the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Mohan Singh Bisht. While Bisht got 46,307 votes, Rawat secured 28,780 votes. Though Rawat did imprint his image on the minds of the voters in the constituency, the work done by Bisht for many years and his interaction with the public had a greater impact. Bisht is known for two major tasks which he used to undertake on a regular basis. He used to attend the last rites of the departed people at Ranibagh during the day and attend wedding functions during the evening. The connection he made with the people in this way is said to be a major reason for his victory. Apart from the BJP and Congress candidates, the BSP candidate Prithvi Pal Singh Rawat got only 410 votes while the AAP candidate Chandrashekhar Pande got 898 votes. The CPI (ML) candidate Bahadur Singh Jaggi got 324 votes while Samajwadi Party candidate Manoj Pande could manage only 96 votes. Republican Party of India candidate Ram Singh got 103 votes, independent candidate KS Mehta got 1,552 votes, independent candidate Navin Chandra Pant got 162 votes while Congress rebel Sandhya Dalakoti contesting as an independent got 3,908 votes. A total of 679 voters pressed the NOTA button on the EVM.
