Following the poor show in the Assembly elections early this year, Uttarakhand’s two leading regional parties – Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) and Uttarakhand Raksha Morcha (URM) are fast losing hold ground in Uttarakhand, if the October 10 Tehri Lok Sabha by-poll is any indication.
Candidates of both parties lost in the election. In the Assembly elections in January, the UKD, which is the main regional party and is credited with the creation of Uttarakhand, had bagged just one seat from Yamunotri where Urban Development Minister Pritam Singh Panwar won. In the remaining seats where the UKD contested, its candidates lost badly. The party had suffered a vertical split a few years ago. There are two factions of the UKD in Uttarakhand – one headed by Diwakar Bhatt, a former minister, and another headed by Trivendra Singh Panwar.
Kunwar Jupinder Singh of the URM, which was floated by former Tourism Minister T P S Rawat last year, also lost, getting only 7,466 votes. The party had also lost all the seats it had contested in the Assembly elections in January.
