Uttarakhand Kranti Dal is a regional political party in India based in Uttarakhand Himalayas. The UKD was established in 1979 with the aim of fighting for a separate state compiling the hill districts of Uttar Pradesh.The Uttarakhand Kranti Dal since its formation focussed on the causes of social justice, related to the Uttarakhand region of the Indian Himalayas. The party was formed under the chairmanship of the then Vice-Chancellor of Kumaon University, Shri D.D. Pant.
The demand, on which the UKD was formed, was achieved to some degree after the initiation was taken in forming the Uttaranchal state in 2000. The headquarters of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal is situated at 10, Court Road, Dehrpadun - 248001. The party made its first entry at the legislative assembly in 1980 with Jaswant Singh Bisht as their candidate. After five years, the party`s longest serving member till date, Kashi Singh Airi won in Pithoragarh. He won again in the new Uttaranchal state assembly elections of 2002. At the state assembly elections of 2002, the party won only 4 seats out of 70 seats.
In 1994, a massive anti-reservation movement for a separate hill state was maneuvered by the party. The movement even led to hunger strikes. The movement was flared up after the death of Indramani Badoni, one of the original hunger strikers from 1994 and a long-time stalwart of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal. His death led the party to recognise his work as a testimonial to his tireless efforts on behalf of the region with a noble gesture. The state of "Uttaranchal" was formed in 2000. It was seen as a partial victory as it took place by completely disregarding the movement that gave birth to it.
The political ideology of Uttarakhand Kranti Dal is Regionalist/Populist, center-left. This regio-political party has launched many campaigns in the past. Most of them are adapted to uplift the social and economic problems related to Uttarakhand. Many of them have been comprehended. From there a cognition of their civic ideology can be found which portrays similarity with the centre-left nationalist parties like the Scottish National Party or Plaid Cymru. The Uttarakhand Kranti Dal won 3 of the 70 seats at the state elections held in February 2007. But in the elections neither the Congress nor the BJP received a majority. So it was UKD which played a significant role in the next government by supplying needed support to one of the larger parties. The Uttarakhand Kranti Dal in forming the government chose to support the BJP. The alliance was more close to having an absolute majority compared to the Congress Party. Eventually BJP formed the next government on March 2007.
Till date the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal has not been able to attain its counterfeit goal in constituting a viable "third force" in Uttarakhand politics due to splits and divisions within its ranks. But eventually the party maintained ally with the left parties in the state such as the CPI, CPI(M), and other minor Uttarakhand parties and social movements. B.D. Raturi is the present president of the party. Kashi Singh Airi, one of its first elected MLAs usually headed all the legislative meetings of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal. Late Indramani Badoni, late Bipin Chandra Tripathi, and Diwakar Bhatt are the founding members of the party. Some other notable members include- K Jigrana; Pritam Panwar; Ram Chandra Singh Bisht; Mahaveer Singh Kharola; Laxman Singh Rana; Om Gopal; Pritam Bhartwan; Gulfam Ali; Sukhpal Koli; Ved Kishore Jugran; Virendra Uniyal; Vivekanand Khanduri; Prakash Joshi; Bindu Rajput; Rajpal Singh Rawat; Sanjay Kumar Arora; Shahzad; Pratap Singh; Surendra Kumar; Hari Shankar Sharma; Jamshed Khan; Bal Singh Saini; S Kaparwan; Vipin Kotnala; Anant Prakash; Nand Kishore Nautiyal; Sunder Singh Chauhan; SS Negi; Sohanlal Muyal; Lalit Bisht; Shrikrishan Bhatt; Devendra; Geeta Bisht; Magan Lal Shah; Lokapal Singh Karmiyal; Heera Ballabh Bhatt; Govind Ram Arya; Pushpesh Tripathi; Prayag Datt Sharma; Bhagat Singh; Vimla Negi; Prem Ram Arya; Brahmanand Dalakoti; Ram Lal Arya; Basant Joshi; Harish Singh Bisht; Narayan Singh Janthwal; Muhammad Safiq; Rekha Chaudhary; Nandlal Kamboj; Kamal Kumar Pandey; Kulo Ram Singh; Narayan Singh Mehar; Prahlad Singh Mehta; Jodh Singh; Dhaniram Chanyal; Ghanshyam Joshi; Lal Singh Khampa.
