It's not a 'general' battle for CM Khanduri

by Sumit Pande

Thursday , January 19, 2012 at 13 : 11

Kotdwar has neither the span of the Doon valley nor the placidity of the olive green Naini Tal Lake. An unassuming town, sitting at the foothills of the Shivaliks, deriving its only existential utility from being the gateway to Pauri Garwal. Lansdown - the regimental headquarters of the Garwal Rifles is less than twenty miles up the hills.

Kotdwar of January, 2012 also bears an uncanny resemblance to Ganderbal of October, 2002.

Ganderbal! Ganderbal near Sonemarg in the Kashmir valley?

Yes, the same Ganderbal. The traditional seat of power for the Abdullah family - Sheikh, Farooq and now Omar. We will come to that later.

Let's first see what's happening in Kotdwar, January 2012.

Kotdwar in these elections is a VIP constituency for all practical

Rebellion among Uttarakhand parties

by Sumit Pande

Thursday , January 12, 2012 at 11 : 46

It has been unusually cold winter in Uttarakhand this year. Capital Dehradoon's tony Rajpur Road received snowfall after sixty years as political parties were warming up to electoral battle in this hill state.

There is rebellion in all major political outfits; and regional players are lapping up the discarded with both their hands. BJP has denied tickets to nearly a dozen MLAs including some cabinet ministers. Disgruntled elements in Congress are preparing to play the spoil sport. The effort since, by both the parties, has been to minimise the damage being inflicted by their own.

A day before the Congress declared its final list of candidates; party's in-charge for the state Chowdhery Birender Singh was rushed to the capital D'doon on a secret mission. Accompanying him was party MP from Pauri Satpal Maharaj.