Inflation, unemployment biggest election issues: Harish Rawat

Harish Rawat says there is lot of anger in hills among youth over paper leak and introduction of Agnipath scheme for recruitment in army

Former Uttarakhand chief minister and senior Congress leader Harish Rawat (75) has been canvassing vigorously for his son Virendra Rawat, who is the party candidate from Haridwar Lok Sabha seat. In an interview to Chetan Chauhan, the most prominent Congress face in the hill state explains why he has not campaigned for other party candidates and why he believes the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will miss the hat-trick of winning all five seats in the state in April 19 general elections. Edited excerpts:

 think inflation and unemployment are the two biggest election issues. There is lot of anger in hills among youth over paper leak and introduction of Agnipath scheme for recruitment in army, which was a major source of employment for people in Uttarakhand. People are also talking about corruption and biased conduct of elections. I also feel that lack of development and disrespect for women and deprived sections, such as Scheduled Castes, are some other poll issues.

The Congress lost all five seats in the state in 2014 and 2019. How do you think these elections will be different?

Yes, we lost all the seats in two Lok Sabha elections. It was a close contest for the party and me in 2019 (Rawat lost from Nainital seat by close to 300,000 votes). This time, I can say people are fed up with the BJP and will vote for the Congress. People are fighting the BJP and there is an undercurrent against the ruling party. We are getting good response to the issues we are raising against the BJP.