BJP tantalising short of majority, looking to lure UKD, Ind

Dehra Dun, Feb 27 (UNI) Capitalising on an anti-incumbency wave against the Congress regime and receiving a shot in the arm before the crucial UP polls in April-May, the BJP is all set to form the next government in Uttarakhand, though tantalisingly short of a majority on its own.

With just one result to come in, the party's tally is 34 seats, far ahead of the Congress' 21, while the BSP has made a strong showing in the Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts, winning eight seats. The Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) got two and independents won three. However, the Samajwadi Party and the Uma Bharti-led Bharatiya Jan Shakti failed to register any win.

The pending result is Narendra Nagar constituency, where a recount was sought by the BJP candidate Lakhi Ram Joshi after Congress' aspirant Subodh Uniyal sprinted to victory by a single-digit margin over his Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) rival, Om Prakash Rawat. Mr Rawat is now sitting on a dharna, demanding the results of the recount -- which he claims make him victor.

The BJP is now viewing support from the two UKD MLAs-elect as well as the three independents. It will also stive to grab the Bajpur constituency, where polling was deferred following the death of the Congress candidate in a road accident, three days before the polling. Polling for this seat in Udham Singh Nagar will now be held on March 25.

The Congress salvaged some respectability by winning the bypoll to the Tehri-Garhwal parliamentary constituency by a huge margin.

Its candidate Vijay Bahuguna achieved success on his third try, wresting the seat from the BJP's Manujendra Shah, the son of incumbent MP Manavendra Shah -- whose death on January 5 this year necessiated the bypoll -- by a margin of over 19,000 votes. Mr Bahaguna, the son of redoubtable hill leader and former UP Chief Minister, the late Hemwati Bahuguna, outclassed Mr Shah, whose late father, the erstwhile Maharaja of Tehri-Garhwal, had won elections to the seat a record eight times.

In the assembly polls, the largest victory margin was achieved by the BJP's Madan Kaushik (Haridwar), who won with a margin of 22,700 votes, while the lowest was the 14 votes for independent candidate Yashpal Benam -- who felled Education Minister Narendra Singh Bhandari in Pauri -- over his BJP rival. Despite a recount, Benam maintained his slender lead.

Mr Bhandari was one of the three ministers in the N D Tiwari government who were defeated. The other was the high-profile Parliamentary Affairs Minister Indira Hridayesh, who lost to her BJP rival Bansi Dhar Bhagat in Haldwani by a margin of over 4000 votes.

The third was Surendra Singh Negi from Kotdwar. Both Hridayesh and Negi were defeated by first-timers.

Agriculture Minister Mahendra Singh Mahra, Health Minister Tilak Raj Behar and Power Minister Amrita Rawat retained their Lohaghat, Rudrapur-Kichha and Bironkhal seats respectively.

Speaker in the outgoing Assembly Yashpal Arya (Congress) and his predecessor in the post Prakash Pant (BJP) won the Mukteshwar (reserved) and Pithoragarh assembly seats respectively.

However, the hill state's first Chief Minister Nityanand Swamy lost in Laxmichowk constituency to the Congress' Dinesh Agarwal.

Now the BJP will have to solve the ticklish problem of selecting its leader. Whereas former Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Maj Gen (retd) Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri was supposedly to be the choice, former CM Bhagat Singh Koshiyari is also understood to be in the race. Meanwhile, former HRD Minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi's name is also being floated.

Out of a total of 806 candidates, 785 candidates were left in the fray for 69 seats of the 70-member assembly after Bajpur Assembly election was deferred.

The final average voting percentage in the state, which has an electorate of 60,00,000 people, was 63.72 per cent, a significant increase over the figure of 54.21 per cent recorded in the hill state's first-ever polls in 2002.

The highest percentage was recorded in Pantnagar-Gadarpur assembly constituency of Udham Singh Nagar district (76.80 per cent), followed by Jaspur in the same district (74.00 per cent), while the lowest were Bhikiasain (53.14 per cent) in Almora district and Laxman Chowk (53.89 per cent) in Dehradun district.

The Udham Singh Nagar district recorded the highest percentage (72.40) while Dehra Dun (58.76 per cent) saw the lowest turnout.

Eds: Pls pick up suitably from earlier series UNI