New Delhi: In a big setback, incumbent Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami lost from his Khatima constituency in Udham Singh Nagar district to Congress’s Bhuwan Chandra Kapri, despite the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headed to retain power for the second consecutive term in the hill state.
Although the saffron party is leading in 48 out of 70 seats, incumbent Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami lost to Congress rival Bhuwan Kapri by 7,000 votes.
As per the Election Commission data, Kapri got a total of 34,866 while Dhami got 28,317 votes.
The winning candidate is a forty-year-old graduate who has been associated with the grand old party for a long time and has been the party’s one of the most trusted leaders in the hill state.
According to the Congress leaders in Uttarakhand, Kapri is a man on whom the party relies on to deliver. Moreover, his humbleness and non-controversial ways make him an asset to the party.
Bhuwan Chandra Kapri was also the runner-up in the 2017 Assembly elections. Kapri, who is an LLB graduate, has no criminal case pending against him.
Also, according to his election commission affidavit, the total declared assets of Kapri are less than Rs 50 lakh and by profession, he is an advisor and pensioner.
His total declared assets include Rs 15.3 lakh in moveable and Rs 34 lakh as immoveable assets, and Kapri has total liabilities of Rs 12.8 lakh.
Notably, it’s a tradition of sorts that the sitting Chief Minister in Uttarakhand doesn’t win the assembly polls. Congress leader Harish Rawat had tried his luck in 2017 elections from two seats but failed in both.
While the Congress had not announced Harish Rawat as its chief ministerial face, BJP was almost seeking a full five-year term for Dhami to work on the party’s vision on development in Uttarakhand.
Despite Dhami’s defeat, the BJP, however, appears to be on the way to making history by winning two successive assembly elections in the hill state as it had never happened in its 21-year history.