Haridwar Lok Sabha Constituency: BJP's Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank Fighting To Retain Seat

Bharatiya Janata Party candidate and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank is re-contesting from Haridwar Lok Sabha constituency that goes to polls on April 11.

Pokhriyal, who defeated his nearest rival, the Congress’ Renuka Rawat by about 2,00,000 votes in 2014, is facing Ambrish Kumar of Congress this time.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate is Antriksh Saini.

In the 2014 elections, Pokhriyal had polled 5,92,320 votes (50.38 percent), while Renuka Rawat, the wife of former Chief Minister Harish Rawat, polled 4,14,498 votes (35.26 percent).

In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, Congress’ Harish Rawat defeated BJP’s Swami Yatindranand Giri by over 1.20 lakh votes.

Between 1996 to 2004, BJP’s Harpal Singh Sathi held Haridwar Lok Sabha seat. In 2004, the seat was won by Samajwadi Party’s Rajendra Kumar Badi.

A look at the graph of the vote share of major political parties in the past three Lok Sabha elections, shows that in 2004, it was a keen contest between the BJP, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, with Congress way down.

In 2009, the Samajwadi Party’s influence waned majorly, and it polled just 4.67 percentage of votes, while the BJP and BSP were in close contest (polling 25.99 and 23.01 percent respectively), with Congress winning handsomely.

In 2014, the BJP soared way ahead of rivals, with Congress a distant second, and BSP way below.

Haridwar is one of the five Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttarakhand.

The constituency came into existence in 1977, after the delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies. Between 1977-2009, the constituency was reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates.

Some interesting facts about the constituency:

Haridwar Lok Sabha constituency comprises 14 legislative assembly segments: BHEL Ranipur, Bhagwanpur, Haridwar, Hardwar Rural, Jhabrera, Jwalapur, Khanpur, Laksar, Manglore, Pirankaliyar, Rishikesh, Roorkee, Dharampur,  Doiwala

It is spread over two districts of Dehradun and Hardwar.

The number of electors has grown over the past two elections. In 2009 it stood at 12,94,280, in 2014 it was 16,42,873, while in 2019 the number of voters is 18,03,950.

The polling percentage in 2009 was 60.88, while in 2014 it was 71.56.

The total population of the constituency is 24,05,753, with Scheduled Castes comprising 19.23 percent and Scheduled Tribes 0.44 percent.

Religious groups: Hindus comprise 70 percent, while Muslims form 28 percent.