the simmering discontent deep in the two parties is likely to mar the prospects of some candidates, making the contest keen, reports Shishir Prashant.
Creating Uttarakhand in 2000 was a plain-spoken act of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre because the step coalesced with Hindutva, the party’s worldview.
But after its formation, the BJP lost power twice. Each time it was defeated in the hill state, it sent shockwaves to New Delhi and Nagpur, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh headquarters, alike.
This time also, the BJP, the ruling party in the state, is feeling the same heat because it is facing a formidable challenge from the Congress in the February 14 Vidhan Sabha election.
Both the parties have announced the names of all the 70 candidates.
The BJP says it will win more than 60 seats (three more than in 2017) while the Congress is sure of getting a majority.
But the simmering discontent deep in the two parties is likely to mar the prospects of some candidates, making the contest keen.
Initially, many leaders had shown resentment after being denied the ticket. There were a few others who thought their poll prospects would be better on the opposite side.
Veteran BJP leader Harak Singh Rawat, along with his daughter-in-law Anukriti Gusain, joined the Congress.
Gusain, a model-turned-politician, managed to get the Congress ticket from Lansdowne, but her father-in-law was left high and dry.
In October, BJP top leader Yashpal Arya, along with his son Sanjiv, had rejoined the Congress, fearing anti-incumbency.
As dissidence grew, good sense prevailed, with the party mandarins in both the BJP and Congress asking the state leaders to explore the middle path in order to defuse the crisis seat by seat.
At one point of time, the two appeared as if they were each other's mirror image as far as rebellion was concerned.
"There is discontent in both the BJP and Congress. But since the countdown to the election has begun, the dust would also settle gradually," said Govind Kaptyal, a political observer.
A reason that triggered discontent in the two parties was that some decisions were thought to be hasty.
For example, when former chief minister Harish Rawat, a top election strategist, recently decided to contest from Ramnagar, he surprised his own supporters more than anybody else.
And soon, Rawat faced a counter-blast from his protégé-turned-adversary and state party working president Ranjit Rawat, who expressed his anguish over the move, saying he had been nursing the seat for many years and indicated he might contest independently.
After gauging the mood of the party workers, Harish Rawat shifted his seat to Lal Kuan while the younger Rawat agreed to move to his old Salt seat.
Now Mahendra Pal Singh will contest from Ramnagar on the Congress ticket against the BJP's sitting MLA, Diwan Singh Bisht.
However, the party could not prevent former state Congress chief Kishore Upadhayay and a host of other leaders, who were unhappy at not getting the ticket, from joining the BJP.
The Congress now claims there is no discontent in the state unit and the remaining issues are being sorted out.
"Our main aim is to defeat the BJP," said state party vice-president Suryakant Dhasmana, who is contesting from the Dehradun Cantt seat.
The picture is no different in the BJP, where a host of poll aspirants have switched sides or are getting ready to play spoilsport.
Gopal Rawat, a BJP poll aspirant from Narendranagar, joined the Congress after he was denied the ticket.
He will take on state Agriculture Minister Subodh Uniyal, who had joined the BJP after some head-butting in the Congress in 2016.
A couple of sitting MLAs who did not get the chance to contest have threatened to fight independently.
Efforts to defuse the growing rebellion in both the BJP and Congress are also yielding fruit with a couple of MLAs like Munni Devi of the BJP in Tharali agreeing to support the official candidates.
When quizzed, Congress campaign committee chairman Harish Rawat welcomed the decision of the party to change his seat from Ramnagar to Lal Kuan.
He said it was done to ensure the party’s victory.
Asked why his daughter Anupama was given the Haridwar (Rural) seat, Rawat said she had been working in the area for 20 years.
Similar views were echoed by BJP state president Madan Kaushik, who is contesting from Haridwar City.
"There is no resentment among the party leaders and we will win more than 60 seats," Kaushik said.
The Aam Adami Party started its campaign with a bang a few months ago and announced a series of freebies like free power and jobs to every unemployed youth.
But later, the AAP campaign turned sluggish with the party's focus shifting to states like Punjab.
Similarly, the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal has not made any headway in the campaign despite being credited with spearheading the statehood campaign in the 1990s.
