The working president of Uttarakhand Congress, Bhuwan Kapri, is an elated man for a reason.
Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) returned to power in the state, chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami lost in Khatima constituency against Kapri by a margin of 6,579 votes.
The BJP will return to power in the state, with 47 MLAs and 44% vote share. However with the defeat of the chief minister, the BJP will have to pick a new leader of the BJP legislative party to head the next government.
Sources say it could either be Dhami or someone from the newly elected MLAs. Kapri had lost to Dhami in 2017.
While the party is looking at reasons for Dhami’s defeat, Kapri claims people look for a “24×7 mode leader”.
Asked whether he feels disheartened that despite winning Khatima, he will set in the opposition benches inside the state assembly, he said, “Politics demands round-the-clock dedication. I feel the Congress needs to work hard in the coming five years and fill the gaps.”
Rising through the ranks of NSUI – the Congress’s students’ wing – Kapri’s tryst with politics began in 2001 when he joined the party. The son a of sweet meat shop owner, he helped his father, but remained involved in college politics.
A couple of months before the election, he was appointed as the acting state president of the Congress, a move seen as a balancing act among the “warring factions” of the party.
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