Uttarakhand Polls: It could be a close fight in the land of Gods

 

Uttarakhand also called "Devbhoomi"(Land of God) could possibly witness a close contest between the ruling BJP and its political rival-Congress. The Opinion polls have so far come up with mixed predictions. While the one conducted projected a "stiff competition" giving 33-35 seats for BJP and Congress each, the one conducted by Times Now predicted a landslide victory for BJP with anything between 44-50 seats.

However, ground reports emanating from the region lean towards the first prediction. "It's not going to be a cakewalk for us," a BJP leader from the state revealed.  A senior Congress functionary echoed the same view."It's going to be a close fight." Of the 70 assembly berths, BJP has 57 MLAs while the Congress has 11 in its kitty.

The saffron insiders believe that "anti-incumbency, unemployment and price rise" could be issues hurting the party.

Sensing that unemployment has emerged as a major election issue both Congress and BJP have been promising lakhs of jobs. But none of the outfits has so far been able to come up with any concrete roadmap. Throwing its hat into the ring the Aam Aadmi Party promised 5,000 per month to the unemployed youth. According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), "while the working-age population in Uttarakhand has risen by 14 per cent in the last five years, the employment rate has come down to 30.43 per cent in December 2021 from 40.10 per cent in December 2016."

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