The absence of prominent Congress leaders during the campaign in Dehradun, Uttarakhand is being seen by political analysts here as one of the main factors for the party's defeat in the state.
BJP won all five Lok Sabha seats in the state by a record huge margin for the third time in a row.
A Dehradun-based political analyst said, "Prominent Congress leaders stayed away from the field. This left the party workers disappointed. The lack of enthusiasm among the party workers was evident from the beginning.,
He said the Congress could have performed better if it had chosen its candidates more carefully and worked harder to break into the BJP stronghold.
"For example, if Harish Rawat himself had contested from Haridwar instead of his son, the picture could have been different there," said Manmohan Bhatt, a Dehradun-based political analyst.
He said, although the Congress lost the seat, its vote share in Haridwar has increased continuously since 2014, while the BJP's vote share has declined.
In 2014, BJP's vote share in Haridwar seat was 58 percent. This falls to 52 percent in 2019 and 50 percent in 2024. Bhatt said, Congress' vote share on that seat has increased from 35 percent in 2014 to 38 percent in 2024.He said that in such a scenario, an experienced candidate instead of a newcomer could have given a better fight to Trivendra Rawat in Haridwar.
On Tuesday, Trivendra Rawat won the seat by defeating Harish Rawat's son Virendra Rawat by 1,64,056 votes to enter the Lok Sabha for the first time.
He said that even another contender for the seat, State Congress Committee President Karan Mehra, could have done better in Haridwar.
Similarly, six-time Congress MLA from Chakrata, Pritam Singh and Bazpur MLA Yashpal Arya would have been better choices for Tehri and Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar constituencies, he said.
Bhatt said, although former PCC president Ganesh Godiyal lost from Pauri Garhwal, he was able to reduce the BJP's victory margin to a great extent in 2019."If a relatively little-known first candidate like Bobby Panwar, an independent candidate backed by the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal, can secure 1.5 lakh votes in Tehri, it is an indication that people were in a mood to vote for a good option when there was a choice. But Congress seems to have missed this opportunity in Uttarakhand this time,” Bhatt said.
He said that before the elections, senior party leaders including Badrinath MLA Rajendra Bhandari leaving the party also affected the enthusiasm of the party workers, which affected the electoral fortunes of the party.
He said that Congress's weak campaign compared to BJP's vigorous campaign has also hurt the party's prospects.
Among national leaders, only Priyanka Gandhi Vadra addressed a few election rallies in Uttarakhand, while all the BJP star campaigners including Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Yogi Adityanath and JP Nadda addressed several election meetings and road shows.State.
BJP won all five Lok Sabha seats in the state by a record huge margin for the third time in a row.
A Dehradun-based political analyst said, "Prominent Congress leaders stayed away from the field. This left the party workers disappointed. The lack of enthusiasm among the party workers was evident from the beginning.,
He said the Congress could have performed better if it had chosen its candidates more carefully and worked harder to break into the BJP stronghold.
"For example, if Harish Rawat himself had contested from Haridwar instead of his son, the picture could have been different there," said Manmohan Bhatt, a Dehradun-based political analyst.
He said, although the Congress lost the seat, its vote share in Haridwar has increased continuously since 2014, while the BJP's vote share has declined.
In 2014, BJP's vote share in Haridwar seat was 58 percent. This falls to 52 percent in 2019 and 50 percent in 2024. Bhatt said, Congress' vote share on that seat has increased from 35 percent in 2014 to 38 percent in 2024.He said that in such a scenario, an experienced candidate instead of a newcomer could have given a better fight to Trivendra Rawat in Haridwar.
On Tuesday, Trivendra Rawat won the seat by defeating Harish Rawat's son Virendra Rawat by 1,64,056 votes to enter the Lok Sabha for the first time.
He said that even another contender for the seat, State Congress Committee President Karan Mehra, could have done better in Haridwar.
Similarly, six-time Congress MLA from Chakrata, Pritam Singh and Bazpur MLA Yashpal Arya would have been better choices for Tehri and Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar constituencies, he said.
Bhatt said, although former PCC president Ganesh Godiyal lost from Pauri Garhwal, he was able to reduce the BJP's victory margin to a great extent in 2019."If a relatively little-known first candidate like Bobby Panwar, an independent candidate backed by the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal, can secure 1.5 lakh votes in Tehri, it is an indication that people were in a mood to vote for a good option when there was a choice. But Congress seems to have missed this opportunity in Uttarakhand this time,” Bhatt said.
He said that before the elections, senior party leaders including Badrinath MLA Rajendra Bhandari leaving the party also affected the enthusiasm of the party workers, which affected the electoral fortunes of the party.
He said that Congress's weak campaign compared to BJP's vigorous campaign has also hurt the party's prospects.
Among national leaders, only Priyanka Gandhi Vadra addressed a few election rallies in Uttarakhand, while all the BJP star campaigners including Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Yogi Adityanath and JP Nadda addressed several election meetings and road shows.State.
