Congress rift continues in Uttarakhand

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s bid to resolve the infighting in Uttarakhand has received a setback with intra party travails continuing in the state, in spite of Harish Rawat’s meeting with Gandhi in New Delhi on Friday after which the former Uttarakhand Chief Minister said that he would be the party’s face for the polls.

The leaders of different factions in the state are still involved in infighting. In fact, some leaders based in Delhi too are involved in the faction fight. They are all under the impression that the Congress will come to power in Uttarakhand, and are resorting to manipulations now. The only problem is, Congress leaders had a similar impression about Kerala and Assam too, but the party lost the elections in both the states.

Soon after returning to Uttarakhand, the leaders started displaying their political clout. Harish Rawat organised a procession called Vijay Julus. The leaders started taking potshots at one another.

Harish Rawat is already the campaign committee head of the party in the state. But the former CM is trying to send out the message that he hasbeen given a new key role after the meeting with Rahul Gandhi. However, Harish Rawat is also saying that Sonia Gandhi will take a call on the chief ministerial face. Now what remains to be seen is the strategy of Harish Rawat’s rivals, namely Pritam Singh and Kishore Upadhyaya, who are being led by Devender Yadav, the state-in-charge, during candidate selection. Devender Yadav has already to sideline Rawat. And now it won’t be easy for them to deal with Rawat’s supporters.