3 min readLucknowMar 2, 2026 03:51 PM IST
First published on: Mar 2, 2026 at 03:51 PM IST
The BJP in Uttarakhand has tasked its leaders with inducting 3,000 leaders from rival parties in each of the 70 Assembly constituencies of Uttarakhand, where 23 seats were decided by less than 5,000 votes in the 2022 Assembly polls while the average victory margin was 8,517 votes.
“The target is based on electoral calculations. The inductees will include active party workers, booth committee presidents, coordinators and former office-bearers at the district- and Assembly-level. Even if we manage to bring in 2,000 such members in each constituency, it could translate into around 6,000 additional votes in each seat because of their families,” said a senior BJP leader.
The BJP calculation is also that bringing in rival parties’ workers would dent their opponents’ morale and create a perception among voters that the party is set to return to power.
In line with this target, several youth and women leaders from the Congress and the BSP were inducted into the party fold in Dehradun last week. “It is a mobilisation strategy. Those impressed with the work of the Dhami government as well as the BJP’s ideology will be inducted into the party,” said senior BJP leader Virendra Singh Bisht.
In 2022, the BJP won 47 seats to retain power under Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, who lost from Khatima but was subsequently elected from Champawat. The Congress won 19 seats while Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Independents won two seats each.
Of the 23 seats where the margin was less than 5,000 votes, the BJP won 13 while the Congress and the BSP won nine and one seat, respectively. The BJP’s average victory margin of 9,670 votes was much higher than the Congress’s 6,169. The BSP’s average victory margin was 5,513 votes, while the number for Independents stood at 6,574.
The Almora seat saw the narrowest margin with the Congress’s Manoj Tiwari winning by 127 votes. For the BJP, the narrowest win margin was in the Srinagar seat, where state minister Dhan Singh Rawat won by 587 votes. The highest victory margin of over 30,000 votes was secured by the BJP’s Umesh Sharma Kau in Raipur.
Claiming that inductions had largely been on hold over the past year due to the BJP’s internal organisational elections, the party’s state co-media in-charge Rajender Singh Negi said, “Influential individuals will be brought into the party ahead of the 2027 polls. This will reduce the risk of losing (closely fought) seats.”
Sources said the BJP’s move to induct members could significantly benefit it as most seats in the state were decided by less than 8,000 votes. “This is the first time that the party has set such a target. Sitting MLAs have been tasked with inductions while in constituencies where the party lost, former candidates and ticket aspirants will shoulder the responsibility,” said a source.