It was not an easy election for the Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat yet nobody expected him to lose by such a huge margin
One of the biggest surprises in the state elections came from Uttarakhand and Goa where both incumbent chief ministers - Harish Rawat and Laxmikant Parsekar - lost miserably.
It was not an easy election for the Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat yet nobody expected him to lose by such a huge margin. Pitted directly against Prime Minister Narendra Modi — along with his team of more than a dozen cabinet ministers— who carried out an unprecedented election campaign, Rawat was virtually reduced to a one man army in Uttarakhand.
Swept away by the Modi factor, Rawat lost from both seats — Haridwar Rural and Kichha in Udham Singh Nagar. Incidentally, he had chosen to fight from these two seats to tackle the Modi factor on the 21 seats that lie in the plains.
“Rawatji played a big gamble to emerge as the tallest leader of Uttarakhand but failed miserably in understanding BJP’s election craft and Modi’s popularity that transcended across class and caste divide. Moreover, he did not have enough resources, money wise, to match BJP’s massive campaign,” says a close aide of Rawat.
One underlying factor that now Congressmen in the state concede is that they failed to gauge the massive undercurrent in favour of PM Modi non-corrupt image, along with the pro-poor schemes that he took over from Congress-led UPA government but was instrumental in actual delivery.
“It was PM Ujjawala Yojna of giving subsidised LPG cylinders that gained BJP a lot of women voters in hill region where women spend a lot of time in searching wood each day. Demonetization which Congress thought would work against the BJP actually worked in its favour as money does not count much in the hill economy,” says Vikram Singh Damoga, a political analyst
In Delhi, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said that the party will have to deliberate on various factors, especially on whether the exodus of Congress leaders defecting to the BJP had affected them.
“It is a consideration that needs to be discussed openly and frankly. Harish Rawat did commendable work. But why were we not able to communicate that work at the grassroots is the question,” said Surjewala.
Meanwhile on the other side, Goa Chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar also suffered a shock defeat to former party leader Dayanand Sopte who had joined the Congress in 2012. Parsekar’s loss in Mandrem was one of the biggest setbacks for the BJP in the coastal state where it was facing tough fight from the Congress.
A staunch BJP politician, Parsekar took over as chief minister in 2014 after Manohar Parrikar left for to take up the post of minister for defence in Modi cabinet.
According to BJP insiders, Parsekar was trying to impose his will on the party and the government. During election campaigning, the local BJP leadership had refused to endorse Parsekar as chief minister.
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 "Harish Rawat")
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