Uttarakhand: How Haridwar's Municipal Election Results Will Shape The Future Of Ganga Corridor Project

As the chilly night of 25th January gave way to the dawn of the Indian Republic’s 76th year, the meaning of working through democratic limitations and succeeding with the backing of a reasonable electorate became evident to the residents of Haridwar. 

Amidst the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) sweeping victory in 10 out of 11 mayoral seats across Uttarakhand, the proof of Haridwar displaying strong support for a crucial city infrastructure project was overshadowed.

The ambitious Haridwar-Rishikesh Ganga Corridor, colloquially known as the Ganga Corridor, had been vilified and opposed by the Congress party, which put its acceptance among the residents to test, in the Municipal Corporation elections. The party went to polls declaring its absolute opposition to the Rs 3,000 crore project, calling for an immediate halt of both surveys and preparation of a Detailed Project Report (DPR). 

The result? BJP routed the Congress party in the contest for Haridwar’s mayoral seat, with BJP’s Kiran Jaisal defeating Congress’s Amresh Baliyan with a margin of 28,555 votes. 

The BJP also crushed the Congress at the ward level in the Haridwar Municipal Corporation, with the former winning 41 of the 60 seats up for grabs, leaving the Congress gasping with barely 14 wards, most of which came from the Muslim-dominated areas of Jwalapur.

It matters when the outcome is so consequential—not only for urban politics, distinct from the echoes of rural India—but also as a clear rejection of fear-mongering and the perpetuation of neglect in the name of preserving the status quo.

As one of the prime centres of the Hindu civilisation, Haridwar has been frequented by families from across the civilisation’s expanse, for eons. The chronicles of ancient travelers witnessing the strength of the Hindu faith at Haridwar are widely known.

From an infant’s mundan ceremony (tonsuring a baby’s head) to the asthi visarjan (immersion of ashes) of a loved one, from being the abode of numerous akhadas, sadhus and sanyasis to offering devotees and tourists a break from their worldly existence, Haridwar has offered peace, warmth and acceptance to crores, for centuries. 

Yet, as much as one would like for time to hold still in this pristine town, Haridwar has grown. However, its infrastructure has not kept up with the burgeoning numbers of pilgrims, devotees, tourists and residents of the city. 

The roads are now jam-packed with all kinds of vehicles and pedestrians. The streets of Haridwar, adorned with ashrams and dharmshalas, now appear cramped, narrow and dirty. The skies are blocked by a mess of overhead wires and cables, while the myriad ghats have been encroached by squatters, beggars and illegal vendors. The holy waters of Ganga are polluted by small sewer lines and polythene bags. 

This is not what one expects to witness in Dharmanagari. This is also not what the residents of an ancient city deserve. Nor is this a pleasant sight for crores of devotees and tourists, both Indian and international. This is immoral. It's also a painful indictment of the world's oldest civilisation and its inability to preserve its invaluable heritage. 

The Ganga Corridor proposed a complete overhaul of the city, ridding it of the above-mentioned problems and offering Haridwar a fresh breath of air. Developing open spaces, beautifying the city, ensuring hygiene and resolving long-pending civic issues would be central to the Ganga Corridor’s goals. 

Keeping in mind the requirements of the next 25 years, the project aimed to relieve pressure on the temple town and provide a better experience to sadhus and sanyasis, business community, vendors, devotees, tourists and the residents of Haridwar. 

All of this was scheduled to be completed in a time bound manner, prior to the approaching Ardh-Kumbh Mela to be held in Haridwar in 2027. 

Those involved in the project, including Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, assured that the heritage-character of the city would be preserved and protected, while beautifying the city, its ghats and streets. The redeveloped Ganga Corridor would not only be more appealing to devotees and tourists alike, it would also provide a multiplier effect to the local economy, along the lines of Ayodhya and Varanasi, where recent developmental projects have enhanced connectivity, improved hospitality services and positioned these cities as key destinations.

So far, so good. 

But around a year back, innocuous whispers began about large-scale demolition of shops, houses and old temples, as part of the proposed Corridor’s beautification efforts. Members of the highly influential Ganga Sabha also voiced concerns about the project, citing reports - albeit unverified - of similar demolition activities being carried out during the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor in Varanasi and the Mahakal Corridor in Ujjain. 

Apprehensions about the loss of housing and livelihood grew among a section of voters and despite the ruling BJP’s attempts to assuage, the concerns could not be put to rest.  

This is where the Congress party sensed an opportunity and swooped in, fanning the apprehensions of large scale demolitions and loss of livelihood. Congress’s mayoral candidate Amresh Baliyan and her son and the actual face of the party’s campaign, Varun Baliyan, went to town with claims of ‘far-reaching destruction’ that the project would bring about.

With its slogan ‘Aao Banayein Corridor Mukt Haridwar’ (let’s make a corridor-free Haridwar), the Congress party made the decision to make this issue its main political plank, while leaving its own track record of poor civic governance in Haridwar during the party’s mayoral tenure between 2018 and 2023, unguarded. 

The party promised that if elected, the Congress mayor would not only erect legislative and administrative hurdles in allocating resources for the project and approving compensation for the affected, the party also promised that ‘not a single brick would be allowed to be touched’.

The party assured voters of stalling any movement in the execution of the project, riding high on the revolutionary zeal of ‘protecting’ that which Haridwar wanted to move away from - squalor and encroachments. 

Senior Congress leaders like former Chief Minister Harish Rawat and Sonipat MP Satpal Brahmchari also joined the parade, egged on by the scores of Congress-flag wielding young volunteers, a lot of whom, as it turned out, were not even from Haridwar. 

This, in hindsight, proved to be the party’s undoing. While voters expected the party to work on issues like waterlogging, garbage collection and improving safety, the party ran a campaign with the bizarre objective of opposing the one thing Haridwar had longed for all this while - a developed heritage city, capable of embracing its own as well as its guests, with ease. 

The Congress party also accused the BJP of settling Gujarati businessmen in the city, while trying to push the residents of Haridwar into servitude of these ‘baahari’ (outsiders). Surprisingly, the party’s established leaders in Haridwar chose to ignore the centuries-old syncretic culture of the city, whereby traders and philanthropists from across the country have operated businesses, dharmshalas, ashrams and ghat-management operations for several generations. 

Branding swathes of voters as ‘outsiders’, while the Congress party’s own mayoral candidate still remains a registered voter of Muzzafarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, would not be called the smartest of moves. 

In the end, the results were for all to see. 

Not only did the Congress fail to retain its mayoral seat, the party won barely 4 wards out of the first 36 wards of Haridwar, which incidentally fall along the route of the proposed Ganga Corridor, stretching from Saptrishi Ashram to Kankhal, running through Har Ki Pauri, Bhupatwala and Tapovan areas of this town settled in a linear manner, along the Ganga. 

There could not be a stronger affirmation of the Ganga Corridor project. The voters of Haridwar not only upended the Congress’s misplaced forecast of a fear-psychosis driven election, but also held a mirror to the party’s stance of consistently opposing developmental projects by amplifying the most radical and unreasonable voices of opposition from the ground. 

In doing so, the Congress dealt to itself a double whammy - it lost touch with the real civic issues that found resonance with the masses and portrayed itself as an anti-development force which opposes vital projects out of political compulsions.

It's time for the Congress to introspect and course correct. Meanwhile, the voters of Haridwar have demonstrated that voters care just as much about civic improvement and urban development as they do about their livelihoods. Parties everywhere must pay heed.