After witnessing rifts in Rajasthan, Punjab, and Chhattisgarh units, the Congress is now facing escalating tensions in the poll-bound Uttarakhand, with former Chief Minister Harish Rawat voicing his unhappiness about the party high command. However, on Friday, a temporary truce seemed to have been put in place, with Harish Rawat saying that he would be the face of party’s election campaign in Uttarakhand. He made the remarks after meeting party leader Rahul Gandhi. Some other Congress leaders from Uttarakhand also met Gandhi along with Rawat. “Kadam, kadam badhaye ja, Congress ke geet gaye ja. (Keep on marching forward, sing praises of the Congress), I will be the face of the election campaign in Uttarakhand. I will lead the campaign as the chairman of the campaign committee and everyone will support me in fulfilling that responsibility,” Rawat told reporters later.
Rawat did not directly answer questions about the chief ministerial face of the party in the state. “In Congress, after the election is completed, legislature party meets to decide their leader. They send their recommendation to Congress president and then the president decides who will lead the legislature party. We will follow the same procedure on Uttarakhand too,” he said.
Ganesh Godiyal, president of the Uttarakhand Congress unit, said the party will fight the polls under the leadership of Rawat. “We will fight this election under the leadership of Harish Rawat who is the chairman of the campaign committee,” he said.
Rawat met Gandhi two days after making a veiled attack on the Congress leadership ahead of Assembly polls in Uttarakhand over the “lack of cooperation” from the state unit. However, before leaving for Delhi to meet Gandhi, Rawat had used lines of a popular Hindi song to express his loyalty to the party. “Kadam kadam badhae jaa, Congress ke geet gae jaa. Zingadi hai Uttarakhand ke vaaste Uttarakhand par lutae jaa,” he had said.
Taking a dig at the party leadership, Rawat had said on Wednesday that “nominees of those whose directions one has to swim (in the electoral battle) are tying my hands and feet”.
In his cryptic tweets, Rawat has also expressed anguish at factionalism in the state unit saying there was “non-cooperation” from the party organisation in the state at most places and that thought has been crossing his mind that “it is time to rest”.
According to sources, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra spoke to Harish Rawat after his tweet.
Rawat, a member of the Congress Working Committee, is a key Congress trouble shooter and is seen as the party’s face for the elections in Uttarakhand. The Congress is keen to come back to power in Uttarakhand in Assembly polls early next year. Rawat is apparently keen to be projected as the chief ministerial candidate in the state. However, party leaders have so far said that the polls will be held under “collective leadership”. Assembly polls in Uttarakhand are due for early next year.