The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is headed for a remarkable victory in Uttarakhand. As per the latest Election Commission of India (ECI) data updated at 10 pm on Thursday, the BJP has been declared winner in 46 seats, while the party was shown to be leading in 1 seat, taking the totally tally for the BJP at 47 seats out of the 70 seats in the state. The Congress was declared to have won 17 seats and leading on 2 seats as at 10 pm, while the BSP had won on 1 and was leading on another. Two independent candidates have also won.
The election results from Uttarakhand saw many setbacks as Indian National Congress (INC) strongman Harish Rawat and the sitting Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami both lost the polls from their respective seats. 46-year-old Dhami lost from Khatima assembly segment in Udham Singh Nagar district with a margin of 6,579 votes at the hands of Congress candidate Bhuwan Chandra Kapri while, five term parliamentary and former CM Rawat lost to BJP’s Mohan Bisht by a margin of over 15,000 votes from Lalkuan assembly segment.
Other heavyweights, including minister Satpal Maharaj, leader of opposition in the state Assembly Pritam Singh and former minister Yashpal Arya all won the polls. Maharaj won from Chaubattakhal Assembly constituency by a margin of more than 10,000, while Pritam Singh won from Chakrata assembly segment by a margin of 9,436 votes. As per latest reports, independent candidates are leading on two seats while the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) won two seats.
These Assembly results are quite surprising for the state which was carved out of Uttar Pradesh on 9 November 2000 as the voters have previously followed a pattern of alternating of governments between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Indian National Congress (INC) since its first Assembly elections in 2002, with the Congress ruling between 2002-2007 and 2012-17 while the BJP ruled between 2007-12 and 2017-till now. Between 2000-2002, there was an interim assembly in the state.