‘Devbhoomi’ Uttarakhand Deals Out The Hand, BJP Wins Over Congress, As CM Pushkar Singh Dhami Faces Khatima Rout

Like Mamata Banerjee who led Trinamool Congress to a landslide victory in the West Bengal Assembly polls in 2021 but lost her seat, so too was the case of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. PM Modi led BJP to victory with 47 seats but Dhami lost. Sources say Dhami would have won had he listened to party managers, refrained from Katima, he had represented for two terms. “We had advised Dhami to move out of Katima as another party functionary was working the assembly seat for the past five years and should have contested from there. We told Dhami to contest from Dehradun, a safe seat as a BJP candidate had passed away,” BJP leader RP Singh says. The Congress won Katima. Uttarakhand Congress leaders feel Dhami was done in by rivals like Ramesh Pokhriyal who funded his defeat. The Congress’s below par results is blamed on its divided house not having kept out turncoats. BJP turncoats like Harak Rawat joined the party at the eleventh hour, but people defeated his daughter-in-law Anukriti Gosain Rawat from Lansdowne. “The mood in Devbhoomi was against turncoats,” says Yashpal Arya, another BJP turncoat who won from Bajpur, but could not get son Sanjeev Arya elected from Nanital.