Uttarakhand Elections 2017: Across hill state, echoes of ‘Kaante ki takkar’

As the road turned towards Almora, a group of ABVP students from Delhi performing a nukkad natak (street play), reeled out the Modi government’s policies — welfare schemes, surgical strikes across the LoC and demonetization.

The Delhi University students, who had three groups of 10 actors in each in Uttarakhand, which goes to polls on February 15, also took on the Harish Rawat government without naming him or any party. Among the audience of around 10 people who watched, with indecipherable expressions, was Rajinder Singh Kanwal, a contractor. “What idea do these boys have about the hills. They have come from Delhi after mugging up certain issues,” he said.

In the absence of any one issue to sway the polls, both major parties — BJP and Congress — are pulling out all the stops in the state, where candidates have known to lose by single digit numbers and governments have been formed by a margin of one seat. In 2012, the BJP lost by one seat with the Congress getting 32 and BJP 31 in the 70-member Assembly.

While the BJP is depending, almost entirely, on Modi’s image and his policies, the Congress is banking on its Chief Minister Harish Rawat, his connect with the state and local issues — water, jobs, health, roads, local skills, rain water harvesting and exodus from villages to towns.

“Kante ki takkar hai (it’s a neck to neck fight)” is how most people in the state describe it, refusing to bet on any party. It also reflects in the political discourse and the number of BJP and Congress flags that dot the state, though the state has witnessed a trend of alternately voting for the two parties.

“We want Rawat to become the Prime Minister one day. Modi was also a chief minister,” said one of the six men, all in their seventies, discussing politics in a vegetable shop in Someswar. A light-hearted argument followed and those supporting Congress started teasing their friend, a dyed-in-the-wool BJP supporter, saying the party’s candidate Rekha Arya had switched sides.

Arya was not the only one who had left Congress to join BJP last year. The BJP had accommodated 15 such turncoats, a strategy that has blunted its anti-incumbency advantage against the Rawat government. Besides, it also has weakened  one of the BJP’s most potent planks — fight against corruption.  

The BJP is hoping to make up by projecting Modi in the forefront of its campaign. The Prime Minister, whose promise to the poor and middle class of better days after demonetization seemed to have touched chords, also has traction among the youth. “We are supporting Modi. He has said the money of the rich will come to the poor,” said a young woman who was among a group of around 50 people wearing Modi masks, holding BJP flags and shouting pro-Modi slogans, in Someswar.

When asked about the candidate being a former Congress leader, they said their support was for Modi and BJP. However, the rebel factor, in both parties, has turned away some youth. “There is no point in voting for a party. Our elected MLA from Bhimtal Dhan Bhandari switched sides. We would vote depending on the candidate,” said Rajinder Singh, a youth who was in the ABVP. His friend Raju echoed a similar view. Both have decided to back Ram Singh Kera, the Congress rebel who is contesting as an independent candidate.