Tough road ahead for BJP Uttarakhand chief Ajay Bhatt in fight against former CM Harish Rawat

Pitted against Congress leader and former chief minister Harish Rawat, wining the Nainital seat may prove to be an uphill task for BJP state chief Ajay Bhatt, who makes his debut in the Lok Sabha polls from the traditional Congress bastion.

Given Rawat's political stature,the odds appear stacked against Bhatt who is a newcomer in comparison. However, the backing of BJP Nainital MP Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, who is campaigning aggressively for Bhatt, and the Narendra Modi factor may come to his rescue, poll watchers here feel.

Koshiyari had wrested the seat from the Congress stronghold in 2014. But he chose to stay out of the fray this time to let the younger generation come forward.

Enjoying a taller political stature, Rawat (70) seems to have an edge over his younger rival, but the upcoming election is going to be a high-stake battle for both Congress and BJP which appear to be locked in a close and straight contest on the seat.

Both Bhatt and Rawat are struggling to regain lost ground in the coming polls as they had lost the seats they had contested in the state Assembly elections held in 2017. Bhatt had lost from Ranikhet and Rawat from both Kichcha and Haridwar (rural) seats.

According to L L Verma, professor (retd) of Political Science in Kumaon University, the Congress has fielded a veteran from the seat in the hope of retrieving the party's lost prestige in its traditional stronghold.

"In a way, it is a fight between Harish Rawat and Narendra Modi as the BJP candidate is lesser known in the constituency than Rawat, a mass leader who rose from the grassroots to become a minister in the Manmohan Singh government and later helm the affairs of the state from 2014 to 2017," Verma said.

Rawat, who decided to contest from Nainital in the last minute after BJP's list of candidates dropping Koshiyari was out, is leaving no stone unturned to shore up his chances holding nearly half a dozen public meetings and rallies in a day to drum up support for himself.

Bhatt is also working overtime to brighten his chances campaigning aggressively in the area along with Koshiyari.

While Rawat is highlighting public welfare measures taken during his tenure as the CM and promising to give active representation to people by raising state specific issues in Parliament, Bhatt is primarily banking on Modi government's achievements during the last fives years to score over his rival.

At there public meetings, Bhatt and Koshiyari are projecting these elections as an opportunity to re-elect Modi as prime minister, describing him as the only leader capable of giving the country the kind of leadership it needs.

Bhatt is trying to capitalise on the support for Modi especially after the air strikes in Pakistan in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack, Pandey said.

"Our workers are fully organised and people have made up their mind about having Modi back as the prime minister. This factor is bound to work in favour of BJP everywhere," Bhatt said.

Bhatt is also promising to give a boost to adventure tourism activities in the constituency, if elected to power, by reviving the water bodies and giving a fillip to water sports. He has also promised to revive the HMT factory at Ranibagh near Haldwani.

Bhatt is seen as a promising young leader under whose leadership his party stormed to power in Uttarakhand in 2017, Mohan, a resident of Nainital, said.

"Bhatt has his own strengths. Though he had lost his own seat to Congress's Karan Mahra in the last assembly polls, the state BJP president is credited with guiding the party to a massive win the state assembly elections in 2017 when it won 57 out of a total of 70 seats in the state," he said.

Rawat is fully confident of his victory and says he has a roadmap of development ready for his constituency.

"People have realised mere slogans do not work. Consistent efforts are needed to propel the nation on the path of progress. This has been a tradition of the Congress party, this growing feeling among voters will ensure my victory," Rawat said when asked how he rated his chances of wining.

Another factor expected to work in favour of Rawat is the Thakur (Rajput)dominance in the constituency. Rawat, who belongs to the Thakur community, may reap the advantage, but voters in Uttarakhand are not known to vote on caste lines.

Caste does not seem to be a deciding factor in Nainital as K C Pant represented the seat for a number of years apart from Ila Pant of the BJP and N D Tiwari of the Congress, a poll observer said.

A total of 19,31,427 voters will cast their votes to decide the fate of seven candidates, including BSP candidate Navnit Aggarwal in Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar constituency, when it goes to polls along with the remaining four seats in Uttarakhand on April 11.