2024-04-01 18:49:31
Rashmi Khatri, Dehradun: Dehradun, which was a parliamentary constituency in undivided Uttar Pradesh from 1952 to 1971, has now been divided into two parliamentary seats. Dehradun parliamentary seat came into existence in 1977 after Haridwar parliamentary seat came into existence. Dehradun is the capital, but not a parliamentary seat. After the formation of the state, ten assemblies of Dehradun were divided into two separate parliamentary constituencies.
Before separation from UP, Dehradun was the Lok Sabha seat.
In the first Lok Sabha elections held in 1951-52 after the country’s independence, Dehradun was a separate parliamentary seat. However, along with Dehradun, Bijnor and Saharanpur districts of West UP were also included. Dehradun assembly constituency, Behat, Haridwar, Roorkee and Laksar assembly constituencies of Saharanpur were included in this parliamentary constituency. In the first Lok Sabha elections in 1952, a total of 51.30% voting took place on this seat and Mahavir Tyagi of Congress defeated Bharatiya Jan Sangh candidate J.R. Goyal was defeated. In the Lok Sabha elections of 1957, Mahavir Tyagi again won this seat and 60% voting took place in this election. After this, in the second Lok Sabha election of 1957, Mahavir Tyagi won the parliament by defeating Narayan Dutt Gangwal of Praja Socialist Party.
In the year 1962, in the elections of the third Lok Sabha, Congress once again fielded Mahavir Tyagi and he scored a hat-trick. After this, Mahavir Tyagi’s winning streak was broken in the 1967 Lok Sabha elections and he lost to independent candidate Yashpal Singh. One reason behind this defeat was considered to be low turnout. During that time only 32.64% voting took place in Dehradun parliamentary seat. After this, Congress once again captured this seat in the 1971 elections. This time, Mulk Raj Saini of Congress had won with 68.48 percent votes, while his nearest rival Nityanand Swami of Bharatiya Jan Sangh had got only 17.51 percent votes. This was the last election for the Dehradun parliamentary seat.
seat lost in delimitation
In the subsequent delimitation, Dehradun parliamentary seat ceased to exist and Haridwar parliamentary seat came into existence. After this delimitation, some part of Dehradun was included in Tehri Garhwal, some part in Pauri Garhwal parliamentary constituencies.
There are 14-14 assembly constituencies in every Lok Sabha seat.
In this regard, senior journalist Avikal Thapliyal says that after the delimitation of the year 2006, Dharampur, Doiwala and Rishikesh assembly constituencies were added to the Haridwar parliamentary seat. Cantt, Chakrata, Raipur, Sahaspur, Vikasnagar, Rajpur Road, Mussoorie assembly constituencies were included in Tehri Garhwal parliamentary constituency. Uttarakhand has five Lok Sabha constituencies and 70 assembly constituencies. For every Lok Sabha seat, 14-14 assembly seats were divided. Told that Dehradun is anyway a temporary capital, so it is not logical for the capital not to have a Lok Sabha constituency. If seen, Dehradun has never been the only parliamentary constituency. Before delimitation, this parliamentary constituency was a parliamentary seat along with Saharanpur and Bijnor districts. After delimitation, some districts of Dehradun were divided into Haridwar and some districts into Tehri parliamentary constituency, but Dehradun was not made a separate parliamentary seat.