Elections were Held on 14 February 2022 to elect 70 members of the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly and the results were declared on 10 March 2022.
The results highlighted the uninspiring performance of INC and the resilience of BJP in Uttarakhand. BJP won 47 seats out of 70 with a vote share of 44.33%, while INC garnered 19 seats for a vote share of 37.91%. Now interestingly BJP lost 10 seats this time and a vote share of 2.17%, it managed to reinforce its commanding position in the hill state. Besides the national parties, BSP gained 2 seats and 2 independent candidates secured victories. Two parties- AAAP and AIMIM were new entrants and managed to secure 3.3% and 0.03% vote share respectively, with the latter performing poorly.
Change in vote share 2017-22
The main trend when it comes to the Uttarakhand elections is the emergence of INC and BJP as the main contenders for popular votes. Regional parties have been pushed to the sidelines. Combined INC and BJP gathered over 85% of the vote share, with marginal changes in their positions compared to 2017.A major change in scale would be for BSP which is fighting a battle of survival- they earned 2 seats this time compared to 2017’s zero, and lost 2.16% of their vote share. No other regional party made an electoral mark.
Margins
Each of the prominent parties displayed areas of dominance and weak victories. BJP’s Dr. Dhan Singh Rawat from Srinagar defeated INC’s Ganesh Godiyal with a margin of 587 votes, on the other hand Umesh Sharma ‘Kau’ defeated INC’s Hira Singh Bisht with a gaping margin of 30052 votes.
INC’s biggest winner was Piran Kaliyar’s Furqan Ahmad who stomped over BJP’s Munish Saini with a margin of 15743 votes and INC’s weakest winner was Manoj Tiwari from Almora, who managed to avoid defeat with 127 votes. BSP’s two victories are interesting for the fact that Manglaur’s Sarwat Karim Ansari won by just 598 votes, and Muhammad Shahzad from Laksar won with a margin of 10,440 votes.
In the case of independent candidates, both gained victory with health margins. Khanpur’s Umesh Kumar won with a margin of 6852 votes and Yamunotri’s Sanjay Dobhal won with a margin of 6639 votes.
Candidates
Overall, 632 candidates were in the fray for 70 seats, out of which 570 were male and 62 were female. Post results these numbers changed to 8 female winners and 62 male winners. All in all, the success rate was higher in the female section, with 12.9% female candidates getting elected, compared to 10.99% success rate for men.
Lota Candidates
Taking a page from its Goan playbook, BJP mustered a good number of Lota candidates- 9, in Uttarakhand. Out of the 9 candidates, 7 regained their seats. Among the victorious candidates, 5 were previously independent and 2 were from INC. Overall, an impressive 78% success rate for LOTA candidates in BJP.
The same could not be said for Lota candidates in the INC camp. Out of 18 Lota candidates, only one won. AAAP had 23 Lota candidates in their list and not a single candidate could be found in the winner or 1st runner up list.
Data analyzed and visualized by Harleen and Akanksha Gakhar