In the Garhwal Lok Sabha Seat election battle, BJP is mainly active among the voters citing its electoral brand of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as the development work of the Central and State governments and the ambitious infrastructure projects of the Centre. On the other hand, Congress is presenting 25 guarantees for various sections including youth and women to the public in its manifesto.

Ajay Khantwal, Kotdwar. The electoral battle for the Garhwal parliamentary seat, which is geographically considered the most uneven and the largest seat in the state, has now reached an interesting stage. Though 13 candidates are contesting on this parliamentary seat, the main contest seems to be between the BJP and the Congress. Former Rajya Sabha member from BJP and the party’s national media chief Anil Baluni and former state president of Congress Ganesh Godiyal are face to face.

Many star campaigners including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and Union Defense Minister Rajnath Singh have come out to campaign in support of the BJP candidate, while the party’s national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has held an election rally for the Congress candidate. Leader of Opposition Yashpal Arya and state president Karan Mahara have also campaigned for the party candidate.

BJP trusts Modi and their development work while Congress trusts 25 guarantees and local issues

In the electoral battle, BJP is mainly active among the voters citing its electoral brand of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as the development works of the Central and State governments, and ambitious infrastructure projects of the Centre. On the other hand, Congress is presenting 25 guarantees for various sections including youth and women in its manifesto.

Along with this, the issue of Agneepath Yojana, Vanantara episode, inflation, and unemployment is being attacked. Which party and candidate and their issues the voters support will be decided on the polling day on 19th April. The restlessness of the candidates and parties has increased due to the silence of the voters.

In the last election, BJP got 68 percent votes and Congress got 27 percent votes

If we look at the data of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, out of 13,55,796 voters in the Garhwal parliamentary seat, 742784 voters exercised their franchise. Out of this, 5,06,980 (68.25 percent) votes were received by the BJP candidate and 2,04,311 (27.50 percent) votes were received by the Congress candidate.

Social equations will be important in this election too. Only the election results will tell whom the 86 percent Hindu, 8 percent Muslim, 4 percent Sikh, and 2 percent Christian voters choose as their representatives. On this seat, there are 46 percent Thakurs, 26 percent Brahmins, 8 percent SC-ST and OBC, and 6 percent Vaishya and others. In this area, there is a large section associated with military families.