I will lead, says Uttarakhand’s Harish Rawat after 4-hour Congress meeting
A Congress leader said Harish Rawat is the face of the Congress in Uttarakhand but the Congress president will decide who will be chief minister. “Harish Rawat is happy with that,” the leader said.
NEW DELHI: The Harish Rawat rebellion in Uttarakhand has been quelled by the Congress leadership, at least for now, according to those aware of details.
The former chief minister and head of the campaign committee of Uttarakhand emerged from the almost four-hour long meeting looking satisfied and with this statement of content, “I will lead as the campaign committee chairman and everyone will support me.”
In other words, he said, the elections in Uttarakhand will be fought under him. However, the party stopped short of announcing him as the party’s chief ministerial candidate.
“After elections, the legislature party will sit and decide who will lead them. In Uttarakhand, we will follow that,” he said. However, he clarified that he was no longer thinking of retirement or quitting the party, he said, “Kadam, kadam badhaye ja, Congress ke geet gaye ja (Let’s move forward, let’s sing for the Congress party).”
Also Read: Is Harish Rawat reading from Sidhu’s Punjab playbook in Uttarakhand?
This was in sharp contrast to Harish Rawat’s words on Wednesday on Twitter where he said, “Isn’t it strange, one has to swim in the sea in the form of forthcoming electoral battle... instead of cooperation, the organisational structure at most places is turning its face away or is playing a negative role... There are many crocodiles... On whose directions one has to swim, their nominees are tying my hands and feet.” His Twitter statement went on to say that he was contemplating retirement.
The meeting, which was primarily chaired by organisational general secretary KC Venugopal and had Rahul Gandhi dropping in towards the end, tried to assuage Rawat’s feelings of being left out of the decision-making process.
“Even though he is the head of the campaign committee, he felt that he wasn’t getting his way. So we tried to speak to both sides and get them to listen to each other, to keep the other side in the loop,” said a person who attended the meeting, on condition of anonymity.
The other attendees to the meeting which comes just two months before the state elections included the AICC in-charge of the state, Devendra Yadav, the state Congress chief Ganesh Godiyal and legislature party leader Pritam Singh.
“There is no doubt that he is the face of the Congress in the state but the Congress president will decide who will be chief minister. Harish Rawat is happy with that,” said a second leader who is aware of the details.
The Congress is looking to dislodge the BJP from power in the hill state, which Rawat served as chief minister between 2014 and 2017. The BJP is roiled by troubles of its own, and has changed its chief minister thrice in the last year. In the 70-member assembly, the BJP has 55 members and the Congress has 12.
There is a section of the party which feels that at 73, Harish Rawat should step aside and make way for a new leadership. Gandhi is said to be quite keen on an alternative face as he picked in Punjab, a Dalit leader. It is significant that their Dalit face Yashpal Arya. who recently rejoined the Congress from the BJP, also attended the meeting on Friday.
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