BJP, Congress bigwigs among 632 vying for power in Uttarakhand

Elections for the 70-member Uttarakhand legislative assembly will take place on Monday with over 8.17 million voters all set to exercise their franchise to decide the fate of 632 candidates, including 152 independents, in the fray.Since the creation of Uttarakhand in 2000, this will be its fifth assembly elections.Catch all latest updates related to assembly elections hereGiven the difficult hilly terrain, polling officials have left for booths in higher reaches and remote areas well in advance, state’s chief electoral officer Sowjanya said on Sunday.Over 10,000 polling parties left for booths on Sunday, while 1,400 had left two days in advance and another 35 parties on Friday. Some of them have to trek to reach the polling booths in remote hilly areas, Sowjanya, who does not use a surname, said.There are a total of 8,172,173 voters in the state and 11,697 polling booths spread over 8,624 locations, said Chief Electoral Officer Saujanya, who does not use a surname.Both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress have expressed confidence of winning the elections.Also Read | U'khand polls: No Cong leader is opposing my name as CM face, says Harish RawatProminent candidates in the poll fray include chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, his cabinet colleagues Satpal Maharaj, Subodh Uniyal, Arvind Pandey, Dhan Singh Rawat and Rekha Arya besides state BJP president Madan Kaushik. From Congress, former chief minister Harish Rawat, former minister Yashpal Arya, state party president Ganesh Godiyal and leader of opposition Pritam Singh are the big names.The campaigning in the state was dominated by BJP trying to highlight its development plank and attacking Congress leader Harish Rawat over varied issues, while the Congress kept pointing at the failures of the BJP government in providing jobs, checking inflation and the party changing of three CMs within a year. In the last few days of campaigning also got polarised to some extent on religious lines, with BJP accusing Congress of talking about setting up a Muslim university and CM Dhami announcing implementing Uniform Civil Code in the state if the BJP is re-elected. Congress, however, termed it BJP’s “desperate move to polarise polls for electoral gain”.

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