Seeking an explanation for the Congress’ success in winning both the Uttarakhand Assembly seats in the recent by-elections, BJP state president Mahendra Bhatt on Monday said the party needed to look into the decision to field defectors from other parties and any mistakes would be rectified.
The by-election results were surprising for the BJP, given that they came after its victory in all five Lok Sabha seats in Uttarakhand for the third time in this year’s general elections, and its return to power in the state in the 2022 Assembly elections.
While the Manglaur seat that the BJP lost in the recent by-elections was never won by the party, the Badrinath defeat stung because it was another seat associated with a religious shrine that the party lost in the year of the construction of the Ram Temple.
Bhatt, who took over as Uttarakhand BJP chief two years ago, told the state working committee meeting on Monday that the losses were not as damaging as they seemed.
“In the Manglaur Vidhan Sabha seat, where we used to fight for the third position or to save our deposit, we lost by just 422 votes… In the Badrinath Vidhan Sabha seat, there was only a difference of 200-300 votes in each round till the end. (But) we will evaluate this, we will evaluate other issues as well because in the recent Lok Sabha elections, we had won the same (Badrinath) Vidhan Sabha segment by 8,000 votes,” he said.
However, Bhatt admitted that one of the reasons that has come to light since the defeat is that the party is giving tickets to leaders who defect from the Congress. He said this was a “mistake”. “During the Lok Sabha elections we promised MPs from other parties who joined us that we would give them tickets for Assembly seats… I will look into this,” Bhatt said, adding that he had promised that the BJP would win back Badrinath soon.
The BJP had fielded Rajendra Singh Bhandari for the Badrinath seat in the by-election, but he lost to Lakhpat Singh Butola of the Congress by 5,224 votes. The by-election had become necessary due to Bhandari, a three-time Congress MP and former minister, switching to the BJP in March, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, and his subsequent resignation as an MP.
Incidentally, Bhandari and Bhatt have a long history of electoral rivalry. In 2007, when Badrinath came under the Nandprayag Assembly seat before delimitation, Bhandari had narrowly defeated Bhatt in the constituency. Then in 2012, with the seat now called Badrinath, Bhandari had won again, this time against BJP’s Prem Ballabh Pant. In 2017, Mahendra Bhatt defeated Bhandari by 5,364 votes, but in 2022, Bhandari defeated the state BJP chief by 2,066 votes.
However, despite this, there was no real opposition to Bhandari joining the BJP from any quarter. Top BJP leaders attended the event where he was welcomed into the party.
Butola’s victory against Bhandari means that the BJP no longer controls all 14 Assembly segments that fall under the Garhwal Lok Sabha constituency.
In Manglaur, a seat the BJP has never won, its candidate Kartar Singh Bhadana lost the by-election to three-time MP and Congress leader Qazi Nizamuddin by 422 votes. In the Muslim-dominated seat, the fight has always been between the Congress and the BSP.
Kartar, brother of prominent politician Avtar Singh Bhadana (Congress), was a BSP leader and joined the BJP only in March. Before moving to Uttarakhand to try his hand at politics, Kartar was a BSP leader in Haryana and before that a member of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) under Om Prakash Chautala, with whom he also served as a minister at one time.
Incidentally, Kartar was also successful in Uttar Pradesh on a BSP ticket, winning the Khatauli Assembly seat in 2012.
In the 2002 Uttarakhand Assembly election, Nizamuddin, standing as a BSP candidate, defeated Sarwat Karim Ansari of the Congress. In 2007, Nizamuddin also won as a BSP candidate, defeating Chaudhary Kulveer Singh of the RLD, with Ansari (Congress) coming third. However, in 2012, Ansari and Nizamuddin switched sides, and as a BSP candidate, Ansari defeated Nizamuddin, who stood for the Congress. In 2017, Nizamuddin regained the seat, but in 2022, he lost to Ansari by a narrow margin of 598 votes.
Kartar and Bhandari were among several prominent Congress leaders who joined the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, including Anukriti Gusain Rawat, daughter-in-law of prominent Congress leader Harak Singh Rawat, and Manish Khanduri, son of BJP stalwart and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister BC Khanduri.
