Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank impresses with huge victory in Haridwar

ROORKEE/HARIDWAR: BJP’s Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank was tagged as an ‘outsider’ in Haridwar. Yet he was overwhelmingly accepted by the people of the holy city with a huge victory margin.
Notably, Khanpur BJP legislator Kunwar Pranav Singh Champion had openly called Pokhriyal a “migratory bird”. But in the end, even the combination of Muslim and Dalit voters couldn’t prevent Pokhriyal from winning as the outsider tag didn’t seem to have stuck.
According to estimates, there are 25 % Muslim and 25% Dalit voters in Haridwar Lok Sabha constituency. The combination is normally an effective force in elections. However, in the case of Pokhriyal, this combined Muslim and Dalit voters’ strength didn’t work in his rival’s favour.
“If Dalit voters had voted for Congress, we would have defeated the BJP comfortably,” said Congress candidate Ambrish Kumar.
In these polls, the Dalit voters reportedly supported BSP. The party’s Mohd Islam had secured 111,663 votes in 2014 polls whereas the BSP’s 2019 LS candidate Dr Antariksh Saini secured over 1.7 lakh votes. But, even then, the BSP could not take a lead from any of the assembly segments under Haridwar Lok Sabha seat. “Muslim and Dalit voters remained almost loyal to Congress and BSP respectively in this general election. But BJP remained successful in making inroads due to Modi effect,” said Afzal Manglori, a resident.