Ex-Chief Secy seeking career in politics

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, October 26

Former Chief Secretary Rakesh Sharma, who has always been in the limelight for his various acts of omission and commission during his tenure in Uttarakhand, is now looking for a career in politics.

If media reports are to be believed, Sharma has launched himself as a pradhan sewak and is actively soliciting views on various social media platforms.

The former IAS officer’s expedient ways were in full display when he disappeared from the side of Chief Minister Harish Rawat during the rebellion mounted by the rebel Congress MLAs and his government was sacked for a brief period.

Sharma, who is known to possess friends in both Congress and BJP, said to have joined the BJP camp during the March 18 rebellion in the state. For that matter, during the political upheaval, when asked for the absence of Sharma as a trouble shooter from his team, Harish Rawat had told reporters that the BJP had even managed to win over the former bureaucrat.

Notably, after Sharma’s retirement as Chief Secretary, Harish Rawat had gone out of his way to create a post of Principal Chief Secretary for him, even though the centre had refused to give him extension.

During this period, Harish Rawat had left no one in doubt about Sharma’s indispensability to him but that honeymoon period was short-lived as the former bureaucrat was said to be cosying up to senior BJP leader BS Koshyari.

As reports suggest, Sharma is reviving links through his supporters in Kumaon, especifically in Kichha. He is known to have quite a few supporters in Kumaon who recall his ability to deliver as District Magistrate and then Commissioner of Kumaon division. Only time will tell if he takes a political plunge ahead of the 2017 Assembly elections.