BJP trumps Congress in Uttarakhand, CM Harish Rawat resigns
Harish Rawat lost the Haridwar seat to BJP's Yatishwaranand.
BJP won 56 Assembly constituencies with the Congress taking just 13 seats
The BharatiyaJanta Party (BJP) won 56 seats in Uttarakhand,almost completely wiping outthe Congress which won just 11 seats and Others won 2 seats. The BJP wave has beenclearly evident in Uttarakhand.
BJP leaders attributed the victoryto the Narendra Modi wave and a strong anti-incumbency against Harish Rawat who lost both the seats he contested.
Even as results poured in, Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat resigned after losing both Assembly seats to BJP candidates in the state.
Rawat lost the Haridwar (Rural) seat to BJP's Yatishwaranand by over 12,000 votes and also lost the Kichcha seat by less than 100 votes to Rajesh Shukla of the BJP.
Earlier, counting of votes began in Uttarakhand this morning with the Congress taking an early lead in 14 constituencies, BJP ledin 13 constituencies withOthers leading in 2 seats.
In early rounds, chief minister Harish Rawat wasleading in Haridwar Rural constituency, however, he soon started trailing and eventually lost toBJP's Yatishwaranand.
The victory margin between the Congress and BJP this time is massive. The parties were neck and neck in the last assembly polls with BJP winning only one seat less than Congress which formed government with the help of the six-member PDF.
A number of Harish Rawat's cabinet colleagues including S S Negi, Dinesh Aggarwal, Mantri Prasad Naithani, Dinesh Dhanai, Harish Chandra Durgapal and Navprabhat lost their seats.
Almost all former Congress rebel MLAs fielded by BJP won their seats including Sobodh Uniyal from Narendranagar, Kunwar Pranav Singh Champion from Khanpur, Yashpal Arya from Bajpur, Rekha Arya from Someshwar, Umesh Sharma Kau from Raipur, and Pradeep Batra from Roorkee.
Pradesh BJP president Ajay Bhatt who lost from Ranikhet, attributed his party's win to the corruption during the Congress rule.
"People were sick of the rule of corruption, fear and loot and voted for Narendra Modi's and Amit Shah's all-inclusive development agenda," Ajay Bhatt said in a statement.
(WION with inputs from agencies)