MAKING A PERFECT SCORE BETTER

WITH TWO PREVIOUS CLEAN SWEEPS, THE BJP SITS PRETTY IN UTTARAKHAND. THE CHALLENGE BEFORE IT IS TO WIN BY EVEN BIGGER MARGINS

- Anilesh S. Mahajan in Dehradun

In the assembly election held in March 2022, Uttarakhand chief minister Push­kar Singh Dhami defied psephologists, anti-incumbency and a history of no incumbent party being re-elected. Winning 47 seats and 44.3 per cent of the votes, his return to power was emphatic. Two years later, Dhami is back on the campaign trail, hoping to retain all the state’s five seats that the BJP won in the 2019 polls. The state goes to the polls on April 19, when 8.4 million voters would exercise their franchise. Sixty per cent of voters are younger than 48-year-old Dhami, who is wooing them with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a Viksit Bharat, while showcasing his own government’s work.

“Infrastructure projects like construction of highways, bridges, roads, upgradation of airports and rail links are on track or completed, social sector schemes have reached remote parts, an ecosystem is being created to build entrepreneurial capacities. Now it’s the turn of the voters to show support,” Dhami tells india today. Dhami, who was made chief minister after Trivendra Singh Rawat and Tirath Singh Rawat resigned as CMs in 2021, understands that 2024 will be a mid-term referendum on his performance.