Uttarakhand local body polls: BJP supporters

Uttarakhand local body polls: Rags to riches stories have often been a favourite of Bollywood. However, the ascent of Narendra Modi to the post of Prime Minister in 2014 brought his “chaiwala to PM” story into the folklore of Indian politics. A similar addition to the list is Sunil Uniyal Gama, who has become the Mayor of Uttarakhand’s capital Dehradun in the recently concluded local urban body polls. The 56-year-old saw off the challenge from his nearest rival Congress’ Dinesh Agarwal.

Gama hails from a humble background and has dabbled in various jobs before his entry into politics. Some of his occupations include being a paan-seller, running a roadside chowmein stall and photography. All this was before he decided to join the youth wing of BJP, reports Times of India.

Gama is a building contractor now. Praising the BJP for giving him the opportunity, he said that it is only the saffron party that chooses candidates from modest backgrounds. Gama is one of BJP’s five mayors to emerge victorious out of a total of seven mayoral seats. BJP has bagged 34 of the 84 chairman and president posts in the recently concluded Uttarakhand civic polls. Independent candidates sprang the biggest surprise by notching up as many as 23 posts.

The Congress managed to secure 25 of the chairman and president posts in the state’s civic bodies and the BSP won one post, according to the state election commission. The civic body poll was a high-stakes battle for the ruling BJP which was looking to match its own impressive showing in the Uttarakhand elections last year when it had won 57 out of 70 assembly seats. It was also touted as the precursor before the big Lok Sabha 2019 polls where five seats from the state will be up for grabs.