(Tribune)
Less than a week is left for the counting of votes for the state Assembly elections on March 11. Both main contenders of power, the Congress and the BJP, are busy calculating their chances of forming government. While the Congress, led by Chief Minister Harish Rawat, had a brainstorming session, a more confident BJP remained busy speculating about its chief ministerial candidates in case the party gains a majority.Interestingly, both parties, in anticipation of falling short of the magical figure of 36 seats in the Assembly of 70 seats, have also tried to make bridges with the potential strong Independent candidates and smaller parties.The silence of the voters in Uttarakhand has confounded the situation for both parties. The past record shows that the voters in Uttarakhand like in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh have preferred a change every elections. This has given confidence to the BJP, which had invested heavily to win the poll in the hill state. The party had launched a no holds barred campaign against the Congress government headed by Harish Rawat. The BJP poll campaign was headed by National party president Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi held four election rallies. The Uttarakhand BJP banked on the charisma of the Prime Minister for winning the Assembly elections.
