Dehradun: This victory is no less than a celebration for Uttarakhand Congress. This time the public has supported the Congress which was facing defeat in many by-elections and has given a crushing defeat to the BJP. Let us tell you that this time the Congress fought the by-elections on 2 seats in Uttarakhand in unity and the BJP had to lose both Badrinath and Mangalore seats. Congress candidate Lakhpat Singh Butola won the Badrinath seat and Qazi Mohammad Nizamuddin won the Mangalore seat. There was a contest between BJP’s Kartar Singh Bhadana and Congress’s Qazi Mohammad Nizamuddin from Mangalore. In which Congress candidate Qazi Mohammad Nizamuddin defeated the BJP candidate by 429 votes. At the same time, Congress candidate Lakhpat Butola defeated BJP’s Rajendra Singh Bhandari by 5224 votes on the Badrinath seat of Chamoli. BJP had to face a crushing defeat in the 2022 assembly elections on Mangalore and Badrinath seats. BSP candidate Sarwat Karim Ansari had captured the Mangalore assembly seat. On the other hand, the Badrinath seat went to the Congress. Now, on one hand, while the Congress is calling its victory the victory of the people, on the other hand, the BJP is counting its previous victories, talking about introspecting on the defeat.
After Ayodhya, many meanings are being drawn from the BJP’s loss of the Badrinath seat as well. The BJP has never held the Mangalore seat, but the Badrinath seat was special. With the results of the by-elections held on two assembly seats in the state, the BJP has suffered a setback. In the by-elections held on two assembly seats in Uttarakhand, the BJP had contested the Mangalore assembly seat for the first time with the hope of winning. This Muslim-dominated seat of Haridwar district has always been an impenetrable fort for the BJP. The party has faced a crushing defeat in all the elections held here so far and this time too, the BJP, which entered the fray with the intention of conquering the impenetrable fort and with a new strategy, has again had to face defeat. Badrinath outgoing MLA Rajendra Singh Bhandari had left the Congress and joined the BJP during the Lok Sabha elections. After this, he lost his assembly membership. BJP had fielded him as a party candidate but he lost in the by-election and BJP’s manipulation politics did not work for BJP. Let us remind you that this Badrinath assembly seat is the same seat from where Rajendra Bhandari, while being in Congress, defeated the current BJP state president Mahendra Bhatt. Whatever may be the case, these figures of by-elections held on 2 seats clearly show that now the public is taking the Congress party forward by holding its hand. Now it will be interesting to see what impact these by-elections have on the upcoming elections in the state.
