Uttarakhand: Cong high command tries damage-control, calls Rawat & Co for a chat
The Congress is in a stir over Harish Rawat’s cryptic tweets on Wednesday which expressed his displeasure over the way the party unit was functioning in poll-bound Uttarakhand and held a threat of the senior Congressman calling it quits.
The party high command, which can’t afford further rebellion in its ranks, seems to have sat up and taken note of Rawat’s words and on Thursday summoned to Delhi the former Uttarakhand chief minister along with Congress legislature party leader Pritam Singh, state Congress chief Ganesh Godiyal, and leader Yashpal Arya.
Claiming that he was not getting support from the party, Rawat tweeted in Hindi: “Isn’t it strange, one has to swim in the sea of the 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 of the ruling dispensation. On whose directions one has to swim, their nominees are tying my hands and feet.”
“And then quietly in a corner of my mind, a voice is saying ‘na denyam, na palaynam’ (one who does not bow, does not flee). Perhaps the new year will show the way. I have faith that Lord Kedarnath will provide me guidance in this situation,” Rawat wrote.
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NDTV reported, citing political observers, that despite Rawat’s threat, the stage is not yet set for his exit as he has been a trusted man of the Congress and a trouble-shooter that the party can’t afford to lose.
It also said that Rawat’s adviser Surinder Aggarwal hinted at BJP’s role in creating a rift inside the Congress ahead of the Uttarakhand polls. “Harish Rawat is a senior leader of the Congress. If his posters are removed from Rahul Gandhi’s rally in the presence of (AICC state in-charge) Devendra Yadav, then his role comes into doubt. There’s a probability that Yadav is involved in the conspiracy. The BJP may have used the ED or CBI to threaten any of our (party) members. The BJP has done this before and it is a small task for them,” he was quoted as saying.
