Uttarakhand to Head for Hung Assembly, Exit Polls Show; BJP, Congress Locked in Tight Race

The BJP and Congress are locked in a neck-to-neck battle in Uttarakhand and exit polls suggest a hung assembly in the state. While the exit polls conducted by Jan Ki Baat and Today’s Chanakya predicted a majority for the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), Designboxed gave the Congress an edge over the saffron party.

Today’s Chanakya gave the BJP 43 seats and Congress 24 seats, and predicted zero seats for the Aam Aadmi Party and three seats for others. The Jan Ki Baat also gave the BJP and edge by predicting 32 to 41 seats. It gave Congress 27-35, AAP 0-1 and others 0-4. ETG Research, on the other hand, gave the BJP 37-40 seats and Congress 29-32 seats. It predicted 0-1 and 0-2 seats for the AAP and others, respectively.

Uttarakhand had recorded 59.51% voting in the elections held on February 14. The fate of 632 candidates who contested on 70 Assembly constituencies will be declared when counting of votes takes place on March 10.

The high voltage campaign in Uttarakhand had ended with Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami promising implementation of Uniform Civil Code (UCC) after winning the elections.

The ruling BJP has sought votes on development and accused the Congress of appeasement politics. The main opposition, meanwhile, has raised the issues of inflation, unemployment and leadership in BJP which resulted in replacement of two chief ministers within four months.

Prominent candidates from the BJP include Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, his cabinet colleagues Dhan Singh Rawat, Satpal Maharaj, Yatishwarananda, Subodh Uniyal, Ganesh Joshi, Rekha Arya and state BJP president Madan Kaushik. Former Uttarakhand Congress president Kishore Upadhyay has tried his luck this time on a BJP ticket.

On the Congress ticket, former chief minister Harish Rawat, former minister Yashpal Arya, state unit president Ganesh Godiyal and Leader of Opposition in the fourth Assembly Pritam Singh have tried their luck.

No political party has been able to return to power in the state for the second time in a row. In the hill state, the main contest is between the ruling BJP and the principal Opposition Congress, but in many seats, the BSP, Aam Aadmi Party and Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) have also been seen in a position to make the electoral contest triangular.

In 2017 Assembly polls, the BJP won 57 of 70 seats and the Congress won 11. Two Independents also entered the Assembly.

Read all the Latest Politics News and Breaking News here