After Congress’ Harish Rawat, BJP’s Harak Rawat threatens rebellion in Uttarakhand

Seems like the Congress is not the only one facing rebellion in Uttarakhand.

Rival BJP has reportedly upset its state cabinet minister Harak Singh Rawat, who threatened to resign from his post ahead of the Uttarakhand Assembly polls next year.

The Indian Express quoted sources as saying that Rawat, who holds the forest, environment, labour and employment portfolios, walked out of a cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Friday, upset about the BJP state government’s alleged inaction over a proposed medical college in his constituency of Kotdwar.

But BJP state president Madan Kaushik has made light of the matter.

“Nothing happened, there was no resignation. He only showed his anger over the construction of a medical college in Kotdwar, but there was no resignation,” he reportedly said, insisting that all was well. The sentiment was echoed by state government spokesperson Subodh Uniyal, who too said no resignation letter was received from Rawat.

Also read: Uttarakhand: Cong high command tries damage-control, calls Rawat & Co for a chat

So far so good for the BJP, which can’t afford more trouble in the poll-bound state in which it has already changed two chief ministers (Trivendra Singh Rawat and Tirath Singh Rawat) before putting Dhami at the helm. The party currently holds 57 seats in the 70-member Assembly, with the remaining 11 seats with the Congress and 2 with Independents.

Rawat had switched from the Congress and joined the BJP in 2017 when he went on to win from the Kotdwar seat.

There are speculations that he might return to the Congress after this outburst, The Indian Express said.

Congressman Harish Rawat recently ruffled feathers in his party when he alleged non-cooperation from his Uttarakhand party unit in tweets, and wrote that he feels “it is time to rest”.