Tehri LS election to test centre's latest reforms

Political analysts see the Tehri by-election as not only the first real test of chief minister Vijay Bahuguna's image, but also of the UPA government's new economic measures such as foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail and a hike in administered diesel prices as well as a cap on subsidised cooking gas cylinders.

Accordingly, by-election in Uttarakhand, seen as a minor event by most of the media, is more important than it seems - the life of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government is in the balance, and every seat it has in the Lok Sabha could soon count.

The Congress, which leads the union as well as the state government, took a risk in promoting Vijay Bahuguna, the previous MP from Tehri, to chief minister of Uttarakhand, thereby compelling a by-election. Bahuguna's selection as chief minister itself raised something of a revolt in the local unit of the party.

Now the Congress has stuck its neck out further by putting up Bahuguna's son Saket for its Lok Sabha candidate, prompting immediate suspicions of nepotism. Against Saket Bahuguna is the Bharatiya Janata Party's Mala Raj Laxmi Shah, who belongs to the family of the erstwhile rulers of the district. Her father in law Manvendra Shah, the scion of the Tehri royal family, won the seat for a record eight times.

The Tehri constituency covers a vast area, comprising 14 assembly segments in a mountainous region where distances are not as the crow flies. The state's capital Dehradun, the important hill resort of Mussoorie, and the pilgrim destinations of Haridwar and Rishikesh all fall within the constituency.

The Tehri constituency is thus divided into urban and rural areas, with many voters living in the remote interiors of the state, where one has a long walk just to catch a ramshackle state roadways' bus. The media can hardly cover these areas.