Absence of prominent Congress leaders from fray behind its rout in Uttarakhand: Experts

The absence of prominent Congress leaders during campaign in Uttarakhand is being seen by political analysts here as one of the main factors behind the party's rout in the state. The BJP won all five Lok Sabha seats in the state with fairly large margins for a record third consecutive time.

"Prominent Congress leaders stayed out of the fray. It left party cadres dispirited. The lack of enthusiasm among party workers was evident from the very outset," a political analyst based in Dehradun said.

Congress could have done better had it chosen its candidates more carefully and worked harder to dent the BJP bulwark, he said.


"For example, if Harish Rawat himself had contested in place of his son from Haridwar, the picture could have been different there," Dehradun-based political analyst Manmohan Bhatt said.

Though the Congress lost the seat, its vote share in Haridwar has gone up steadily since 2014 while that of the BJP has declined, he said.

The BJP's vote share in Haridwar seat in 2014 was 58 per cent. It fell to 52 per cent in 2019 and to 50 per cent in 2024. The Congress' vote share on that seat has risen from 35 per cent in 2014 to 38 per cent in 2024, Bhatt said.

In a scenario like this, an experienced candidate instead of a debutante could have given a better fight to Trivendra Rawat in Haridwar, he said.

On Tuesday, Trivendra Rawat won the seat defeating Harish Rawat's son Virendra Rawat, a first timer, by 1,64,056 votes to make it to the Lok Sabha for the first time.

Even Pradesh Congress Committee president Karan Mahara, another contender for the seat, could have done better in Haridwar, he said.

Similarly, six time Congress MLA from Chakrata, Pritam Singh and Bajpur MLA Yashpal Arya would have been better choices for Tehri and Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar constituencies, he said.

Though former PCC president Ganesh Godiyal lost from Pauri Garhwal, he was able to substantially narrow down the BJP's winning margin in 2019, Bhatt said.

"If a relatively lesser known first timer like the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal-backed Independent candidate Bobby Panwar could garner 1.5 lakh votes in Tehri, it is an indication that people were in a mood to vote for good alternative if they had a choice. But Congress seems to have frittered away that chance in Uttarakhand this time," Bhatt said.

Desertions by senior party leaders, including Badrinath MLA Rajendra Bhandari, ahead of the polls also dented the enthusiasm of party workers that took a toll on its electoral fortunes, he said.

A lacklustre campaign by the Congress in comparison to the blistering one carried out by the BJP may also have marred the party's prospects, he said.

Among the national leaders, only Priyanka Gandhi vadra addressed a couple of poll rallies in Uttarakhand, whereas all BJP star Campaigners, including Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Yogi Adityanath and JP Nadda, addressed a number of election meetings and roadshows in the state.