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BJP banks on Pushkar Singh Dhami to lead 2022 Uttarakhand poll battle
The party is also hoping that with Pushkar Singh Dhami now in the saddle, the attention that the party drew for playing musical chairs with the chief ministers, which hinted at political instability, will be diverted
In Uttarakhand, where it faces anti-incumbency and a slew of charges from mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic to the failure in compensating for job losses, the Bharatiya Janata Party is banking on chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami to address doubts about governance deficit and leadership crisis ahead of the 2022 assembly polls.
The party is also hoping that with Dhami now in the saddle, the attention that the party drew for playing musical chairs with the chief ministers, which hinted at political instability, will be diverted. In March, the party replaced Trivendra Singh Rawat, who was in office for four years, with Tirath Singh Rawat who in turn was replaced after four months in office by Dhami who took oath in July.
According to senior party leaders, following a recent round of meetings between the state and national leadership of the BJP chaired by party president JP Nadda, the CM was asked to sort out with speed governance issues in the last phase of the BJP’s five-year tenure.
The state government has been asked to address concerns about job losses, listen to the demand for land laws that restrict the purchase of land to locals, and mitigate public anger about construction activities in the ecologically sensitive region, particularly the Char Dham road project.
“Because of the hilly terrain and the limited avenues for employment generation in the state, jobs is always a key concern in the elections. However, this time because of the pandemic there has been severe job losses. Tourism has been affected and an overall slump in the economy has deepened the crisis. In such a scenario, people expect the government to step in and create more jobs,” said a state BJP functionary.
The party is hopeful that Dhami’s announcement promising 22,000 jobs in various government departments, increasing the salaries of government teachers and resumption of jobs on contract basis will shore up the party’s fortunes. “Even though the appointments will take about five to six months since the service commission has to be roped in, it will subside the anger to a large extent,” the leader quoted above said.
Another issue that has been simmering in the state that the CM has been asked to tackle right away is the issue of temple management through the Devasthanam Board.
The new management model envisaged by Dhami’s predecessor Trivendra Singh Rawat was met with protest in the hill state and was given as a reason for his removal. While the government argued that the board was formed to administer and manage the properties of the temples including the four major centres of pilgrimage — Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri — the priests led a stir against it and still want it to be scrapped. The issue is also likely to figure prominently in the elections early next year.
Earlier this week, Dhami had an hour-long meeting with a group of priests to assure them that the Devasthanam Board that was created in 2019 to serve as a management board for 51 temples in the state would not impinge on their rights.
“Unlike his predecessors (Trivendra Singh) who had rubbed people the wrong way, Dhami is young and possesses the quality of taking people along. He listens and reaches out, a quality that helps in keeping the party flock together,” said a second leader based in Delhi on condition of anonymity.
The leader, however, admitted that the party will have to think on its feet to counter the public perception about governance issues as the opposition has been quick to raise issues ranging from land laws to employment.
With AAP throwing its hat in the ring and promising subsidised amenities as it does in Delhi, the BJP is being forced to come up with matching incentives and ingenuity to counter the promised sops. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has promised up to 300 units of free electricity per month to every family in Uttarakhand and free electricity to the farmers.
The Congress, for its part, has stated that it will quash the amendments made to the Uttarakhand (Uttar Pradesh Zamindari Abolition and Land Reform Act, 1950) Amendment Act, 2018, that did away with a 12-acre ceiling on purchase of agricultural land for industrial purposes. Former CM Harish Rawat, too, has been vocal about the need for laws restricting the sale and purchase of land to locals.
The BJP is also expecting the spate of landslides to snowball into a poll issue. As per details by the Uttarakhand government, there have been over 100 landslides in 2021 alone leading to loss of life and property.
With environmentalists and common people alike blaming the construction of the 5.5 metre wide Char Dham road for deterioration of the local ecology, the party is on the defensive, claiming that it was necessary from the point of view of national security and development of the region.
Even the Supreme Court in 2020 had directed the state government to limit the road width to 5.5m as against 10m proposed initially. “When flash floods on the Dhauliganga river occurred in February, many people blamed the construction activities in the state. More trees were cut than what was permitted and in the past year, there has been loss of life due to frequent landslides. Since people are concerned about the fragile ecology of the state that has harmed the economy as well, this issue will dominate the political discourse,” said MM Semwal of the HNB Garhwal Central University.
Commenting on whether Dhami’s appointment can change the party’s fortunes, he said the BJP’s campaign has pivoted around Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s image and central schemes, but as the polls draw near, the people will demand to know what plans the BJP has for them.
“The Congress, the AAP and the BJP are all competing for the Hindutva agenda. AAP, for instance, said it wants to turn Dehradun into an adhyatmik or spiritual capital; the Congress says Hindutva is not BJP’s monopoly. But given the high literacy rate of the state, people will demand to know what plans they have for economic revival, job creation and improving the healthcare infrastructure in the state,” Semwal said.
