With veterans like former chief minister Harish Rawat and state BJP president Ajay Bhatt in the fray, the electoral battle in Uttarakhand’s Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar Lok Sabha seat is the most keenly watched political battle among the state’s five parliamentary seats during the April 11 poll.

Contesting for the first time from Nainital seat, both have many challenges to face. Rawat has to take care of the bickering in his own party as some leaders didn’t want his candidature from Nainital and the fact that the BJP represents 12 of the 14 assembly segments under the Lok Sabha constituency. HT’s Neeraj Santoshi spoke to Harish Rawat. Excerpts:

What are the major issues from your parliamentary constituency that you want to focus on?

First, there are many projects I had got approved as the chief minister, which the present the government has stopped. Projects like ISBT and Zoo in Haldwani, medical college project in Rudrapur or knowledge city project in Kashipur, textile park in Sitarganj and Jaspur, Kashipur Food Park. Apart from these, earning capacity from agriculture in this area has gone down. I will focus on modernising agriculture here so that it becomes profitable.

Nainital Udham Singh Nagar Lok Sabha seat is huge, stretching from hilly areas to plains. How are you reaching out to people?

My strategy in campaigning is to directly meet more and more people and communicate with them. For the last few years there has been one-sided communication from the Narendra Modi government. Such an atmosphere has been created that only one particular thought the process is being put before people. Modi dominates this communication and propaganda machinery. It is important to create space for alternative narratives. Against this backdrop, I want to reach out to more and more people and listen to what they have to say.

Unemployment and migration from Kumoan and Uttar Pradesh are major issues in your parliamentary seat. How will you address this?

Unemployment, I admit is a major issue here. During my tenure as the chief minister I had taken many initiatives to increase employment avenues for the youth here. But this government has failed to do much on this front. To increase employment avenues, there should be a two-pronged approach. First, to create more government jobs and fill vacancies. Second, at the local level we need to promote people oriented projects in a big way schemes like home stay. Also we need to develop Haldwani and its surroundings as a handcraft hub.

What promises are you making to the voters so that they gravitate towards you?

My agenda has been “Uttarakhandiyat” that this government has abandoned. I will fight for that. Number two, I will fight against the negative attitude of this government towards peoples welfare or the development related initiatives, especially the ones I had started as the chief minister of the state.

You are contesting from this seat for the first time. What is your edge over BJP’s Ajay Bhatt here? And why you chose to contest from this seat?

See I always try to avoid such comparisons. But Ajay Bhatt has no contribution towards the development of Uttarakhand and in developing a vision for the state. In comparison, even my diehard opponent will agree that my record has been good. On your second question, I want to say that the local unit of the party from Haridwar had proposed my name for Haridwar seat. But when I thought from the angle of total future strategy, I felt should contest from Nanital seat. I have been MP of Haridwar where my record has been outstanding and I couldn’t have replicated it there. Now, I want to replicate the same achievements here, what I had done in Haridwar as their MP. This is a new beginning for me here and I am very hopeful.

First Published: Apr 08, 2019 17:32 IST