Harish Chander Durgapal joins Congress today

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, December 22

The state Congress government is set to attain majority in the state Assembly as one of the independent ministers -- Harish Chander Durgapal – will join the Congress tomorrow.
Harish Chander Durgapal, a senior Congress leader and former MLA, was denied a party ticket during the 2012 Assembly elections. He left the Congress, contested as an Independent candidate and won from his home Assembly segment of Lal Kuan of Nainital district in Kumaon region.
Later, he extended his support to the Congress-led government and became the Minister of State for Labour, Khadi Development, Planning and Dairy Development.
A senior Gandhian leader, Harish Chander Durgapal, is a respected Congress leader before he quit the party after being denied the party nomination in the 2012 Assembly polls.
He is considered close to Cabinet Minister Indira Hridayesh, who represents the Haldwani Assembly segment.
Efforts were on for past sometime to bring in all those ministers who were originally Congressmen. With Harish Rawat taking over the reins of the state as Chief Minister early this year, the exercise was again initiated and the Chief Minister was able to convince Harish Chander Durgapal to formally join the Congress.
Durgapal, being an independent legislator, was part of the seven-member conglomerate named Progressive Democratic Front (PDF) comprising three independents, three legislators of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the lone Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) legislator.
The PDF had extended support to the Congress which had won 31 seats in the Assembly polls. The then Chief Minister, Vijay Bahuguna, persuaded Kiran Mandal, a BJP legislator from Sitarganj in Udham Singh Nagar district, to vacate his seat for him. Vijay Bahuguna won the Sitarganj byelections held in July 2012.
After the Lok Sabha poll in May 2014, two of the BJP legislators namely Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and Ajay Tamta were elected as MPs while Harish Dhami, a Congress legislator from Dharchula in Pithoragarh district, resigned to pave way for Chief Minister Harish Rawat to enter the state Assembly through byelection.
Interestingly, the Congress won all three seats taking the party tally to 35. With Harish Chander Durgapal joining the party, the state Congress government would attain a simple majority of 36 members in a House of 70.
There are efforts to bring in two other Independent ministers namely Education Minister Mantri Prasad Naithani and Tourism Minister Dinesh Dhanai into the Congress partyfold. Both of them are from the Congress background but left the party after they were denied party nominations in the last Assembly polls. Tourism Minister Dinesh Dhanai admitted that he would join the Congress on the invitation of Chief Minister Harish Rawat.
The political development is likely to have a bearing on the composition of the state council of ministers having five out of seven ministers from the PDF.
With majority assured in the state Assembly, Chief Minister Harish Rawat could cut the number of PDF ministers as demanded by the Congress legislators.