In Uttarakhand, shrunk Congress braces for uphill civic polls as BJP sits pretty

Expressing his resentment with the Congress, Joshi, who had been associated with the Congress since 1978, said his wife Rukhmani, a zila panchayat member, was denied the party ticket for the mayoral poll in Pithoragarh.

The state Congress has put up a brave face over these defections, maintaining that its senior leaders – Harish Rawat, Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Karan Mahra and Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the state Assembly Yashpal Arya – are set to lead the party’s campaign for the civic polls, which would also involve other senior party leaders such as Ganesh Godiyal, Pritam Singh and Harak Singh Rawat. Currently, the party has two out of 11 mayors in the poll-bound corporations.

For the grand old party, 2024 turned out to be a turbulent year. In the April-June Lok Sabha polls, the party was routed, losing all five seats to the BJP again. In July 2024, however, the Congress made a comeback by winning two seats in the Assembly bypolls in Badrinath and Manglaur. Badrinath had to go to polls due to the resignation of Congress MLA Rajendra Singh Bhandari who switched to the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. Bhandari got the BJP ticket but could not beat the Congress candidate Lakhpat Singh Butola. The Manglaur bypoll was necessitated due to the sitting BSP MLA’s death.

However, subsequently, in the Kedarnath Assembly bypoll, held last November, the BJP regained its winning streak, defeating the Congress by 5,622 votes to retain the seat. The Congress blamed it on the entry of an Independent candidate Tribhuwan Rawat into the fray, who garnered 9,311 votes – more than the winning margin.

The Congress’s vote share plummeted to 32.83% in the Lok Sabha polls from 38% in the 2022 Assembly elections, when the party had won 19 seats of 70 as against the BJP’s 47.

State Congress spokesperson Garima Dasauni claimed that the recent defections would not impact the party’s prospects in the polls. “The (civic) polls have already been delayed by a year and people are fed up with the BJP. The Congress has no money or power, so spineless leaders are leaving us. If the BJP keep welcoming them and rewarding them for defections, their own cadre will come to us,” she said.

Dasauni said, “He (Joshi) contested zilla panchayat elections and co-operative bank elections in the 2000s and lost thrice, and despite this, Harish Rawat ji elevated him to a top post in an education body with the rank of an MoS. He became the general secretary of the party (organisation) and later its vice-president in 2022. During his stint, several leaders left for the BJP. We are not mourning for him here. The graph of the party had only gone down ever since he took the reins.”

In a bid to take on the formidable BJP, the Congress has also sought to seize on some civil society campaigns in the state on various issues. Shortly before the Kedarnath bypoll, the Congress had extended support to the Uttarakhand Berozgar Sangh, but in vain. “When Bobby Panwar of Uttarakhand Berozgar Sangh was booked on charges of assault during a scuffle at the state secretariat, the Congress supported him. But during the Kedarnath bypoll, he backed the Independent candidate who came third. This cost us the election and we stopped backing him,” said a party leader.

In sharp contrast, the BJP seems confident about the civic body polls as the party rides into the New Year with two key policy moves – the Uniform Civil Code, which is likely to be implemented from this month, and the proposed amendment to the existing land law that would make the curbs on “outsiders” purchasing land in the state stricter.

State BJP chief and Rajya Sabha MP, Mahendra Bhatt, claimed that the party would win all 11 mayor seats and most of the councils and nagar panchayats. “Badrinath had a Congress MLA who resigned and it won the seat due to this advantage. In Manglaur, the BJP has never come second, but this time, we were behind by just a little over 400 votes. This is not the victory of the Congress as they make it out to be. With the implementation of UCC and new land law, we will remain on top.”

Bhatt also said the BJP would reward the leaders who joined its fold.

Currently, four ministers in the Pushkar Singh Dhami Cabinet are former Congress leaders who switched to the BJP over the last decade. They include Subodh Uniyal, Saurabh Bahuguna, son of former CM Vijay Bahuguna, Satpal Maharaj and Rekha Arya.