Uttarakhand: Tirath Singh Rawat cancels events to mark BJP govt's 4 yrs in power
Party insiders say decision taken after "rift” in party over CM's decision to participate in the programme being held in constituency of a critic of former CM Trivendra Singh Rawat.
Uttarakhand chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat, on Saturday, cancelled the programmes scheduled in all 70 constituencies of the state to mark the completion of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government’s four years on March 18, citing ‘unavoidable’ reasons, amid murmurs that it could have aggravated the differences within the party. The cancellation also comes amid Opposition charge that the government had delivered very little during the period.
State chief secretary issued a notification to the effect on Saturday evening, only a day after confirming events were to be organised as per the schedule, leaving many surprised. The decision to commemorate four years in government was taken by previous chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, who was replaced by Tirath Singh Rawat on March 10 by the party in the face of growing dissension against his leadership style from within the state unit.
Party leaders said the cancellation followed concerns over newly-appointed CM’s decision to address one of the celebratory events being organised near Dehradun, at Raipur constituency, represented by BJP leader Umesh Sharma 'Kau', a known critic of former CM Trivendra Singh Rawat. Friday's notification had confirmed Rawat as the chief guest at the Raipur programme.
"In former CM Trivendra Singh Rawat's programme schedule, he was to attend the programme at his assembly seat of Doiwala near Dehradun. But CM Tirath said he would attend the event at Raipur, a seat held by ‘Kau’, who is considered an opponent of Trivendra," said a party leader, who didn't wish to be named.
CM Tirath's decision to address the programme from Kau's constituency raised many eyebrows in the party leadership.
"The equations between Kau and Trivendra are known to all. Kau, a staunch opponent of the latter, wrote last year to party national president JP Nadda, alleging his constituency was being neglected by the state government, due to which, constituents were angry," said the leader, adding CM Tirath's decision could have created further rift in the party, which could have completely defeated the reason for his selection as the new CM by party high command.
Another leader privy to the development, said some leaders requested the CM not to go ahead with his Raipur address as it "would give a wrong signal to party workers and the media" but he "refused".
"It was then decided to cancel the whole programme and hold it later," he said.
BJP state media in-charge Manveer Singh Chauhan, however, said, "The programmes have been postponed for later when they will be organised in a much more grand way. However, the new date is yet to be decided," he said.
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Opposition Congress said there was no point in holding celebrations when the "government had done nothing on development in four years of its tenure."
"It is good that programmes have been cancelled, but the question is what the BJP government was going to celebrate when it failed to tackle unemployment, price rise, rampant corruption and declining economy," said Congress state president Pritam Singh.
"Moreover, the celebrations would have only led to the expenditure of crores of money from the exchequer. The BJP government has no right to celebrate when it did nothing for the development of the state," said Singh.
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