Congress party and the Bharatiya Janata Party are locked in a bitter campaign to capture power in Uttarakhand by winning the forthcoming Assembly elections to be held on Feburary 21.
While the top leadership of the parties are flying from one place to another in this beautiful Dev Bhumi, the two parties are also fighting each other through a poster war that is going on between them in the local newspapers and television channels.
Local leaders are using ETV and TV100 that cater specially to the state-level news to reach out to their voters, which is more effective and less costly.
Congress party in its 64-page manifesto lays stress on what it has done in the last five years and what it would do if returned to power and particularly, for women.
In a series of advertisements released in the Hindi dailies, the party claimed to have given 60,000 jobs to educated boys and girls and promises to take this figure to 6 lakh by 2012.
It also stresses on the power sector and promises industrial revolution after power generation goes up from 400 MW to 4500 MW. The party also promises investment of Rs 20,000 crore in three districts of Haridwar, Dehradun and Udam Singh Nagar.
The BJP is harping upon the failures of the N D Tiwari government on various fronts. It points out how Tiwari distributed red lights for cars to 300 persons who did not come under VIP category, including a teenaged girl.
But its main thrust continues to be rising prices in the state and the sharp shoot up of prices of essential commodities.
Lal Kishenchand Advani, in his speeches, have been laying emphasis on the use of tourism sector for generating more and more jobs.
"If Ad-Vani (this is how he is called in Uttarakhand by Congress workers) can achieve this, why did he failed to deliver at the Centre and why did India shining fail?" asked a Congress worker who was present in the audience in Rudrapur rally of BJP addressed by the former deputy prime minister and former president of the BJP.
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