The party seems to have changed the anti-incumbency mood to the pro-incumbency.
The party seems to have changed the anti-incumbency mood to the pro-incumbency.
Even though Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami lost from his own constituency, the BJP’s bet on appointing him as Chief Minister just seven months before the election has worked to its advantage, especially in the hilly areas of Garhwal and Kumaon. . While Prime Minister Narendra Modi played a more important role in the party’s re-conquest in the state, the central leadership’s decision to remove Trivendra Singh Rawat as chief minister and bring in Mr Dhami was ultimately (after the brief tenure of Tirath Singh Rawat). ) seems to have been played. a role as well.
Lokniti’s post-poll data rated Mr Dhami’s seven-month-old government as better than the BJP’s five-year government in the state and far better than Trivendra Singh Rawat’s four-year tenure. While dissatisfaction with Rawat’s government was found to be higher (61% as opposed to 33%), in the case of Mr. Dhami’s government, more people were found to be satisfied (59%) than dissatisfied (32%). ,
We also found that three out of every 10 voters and almost two out of 10 traditional BJP voters were dissatisfied with the work done under Trivendra Rawat, but satisfied with Mr Dhami’s performance. A large majority of such voters voted for the BJP (55 per cent and 78 per cent, respectively). Just as the Congress government in Punjab was found to be more unpopular in our survey because of Amarinder Singh’s four-and-a-half-year tenure, the BJP government in Uttarakhand was clearly not so widely assessed by voters. More because of Trivendra Rawat’s tenure. However, unlike in Punjab, where the Congress failed to control the loss through the promotion of Charanjit Singh Channi as chief minister in the eleventh hour, in Uttarakhand, the BJP benefited from its late decision to replace the chief minister.
However, Shri Dhami’s popularity was confined to the hills of Garhwal and Kumaon, where satisfaction with his government was greater than in the Maidan region. Furthermore, in both the hilly regions, he was far ahead of his nearest rival, Congress’ Harish Rawat, in terms of being desired as the next chief minister of the state. In the upper parts of the state, two out of two respondents expressed their desire to see him back as chief minister, while in the plains, this desire was much weaker (three in 10). Our data also shows that Mr. Dhami has more acceptance among previous Congress supporters than Harish Rawat among previous BJP supporters. In short, it seems that the BJP’s relentless gamble has turned the anti-incumbency wave into a pro-incumbency mood.
Sanjay Kumar is the Co-Director of Lokniti Program at CSDS; Shreyas Sardesai is with Lokniti-CSDS