Dhasmana''s elevation, Harish Rawat''s attempt to consolidate position

SMA Kazmi

Advertisement

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, June 28

The efforts of Chief Minister Harish Rawat to win over leaders belonging to rival factions in the Congress in the state is seen as an attempt to fully prepare for the next Assembly elections scheduled to be held in for January 2017. The elevation of Suryakant Dhasmana, a Bahuguna loyalist, as senior vice-president of the party, besides being made Chairman of the Policy and Planning Group of the Uttarakhand Congress is also considered as an attempt by the Chief Minister to win over his detractors from other groups.

Harish Rawat's emergence as the tallest Congress leader of the state after he was given the reins of the state in February 2014 has already weakened his opposition in the Congress. Most of the groups opposed to him are either non-existent or have joined hands with him.

At the birth of Uttarakhand in 2000, the Congress inherited the rivalry of two power Kumaoni Congress leaders, namely veteran Narain Dutt Tewari and Harish Rawat. While Harish Rawat, who was president of the Uttarakhand Congress Committee, led the party to victory in the first state Assembly elections in February 2002, it was veteran ND Tewari who outsmarted Rawat to become Chief Minister.

Harish Rawat, who had influence over party workers allover the state, fought against the Tewari camp having many senior leaders, including Vijay Bahuguna, Satpal Maharaj and Indira Hridayesh. After the defeat of the Congress in the Assembly elections in 2007, Tewari left active politics but his powerful group continued to oppose Harish Rawat.

In the 2012 Assembly elections, the Congress won by a slender margin but the party high command instead of Harish Rawat, who was a Union minister in the UPA government, chose Vijay Bahuguna, a Lok Sabha MP from Tehri Garhwal, as Chief Minister. The legislators supporting Harish Rawat sat on a dharna for 18 days in protest against the decision of the party high command. Harish Rawat was elevated to a Cabinet post to placate him.

However, the natural disaster in 2013 and its handling by the state government led to the removal of Vijay Bahuguna as Chief Minister. Harish Rawat, a Union Cabinet Minister for Water Resources, was given the reins of the state in February 2014 to check the sagging fortunes of the party months before the general elections in May 2014.

His taking over as Chief Minister finally led to the disintegration of the Tewari camp. In protest, Satpal Maharaj, Lok Sabha MP from Pauri Garhwal, left the party to join the BJP before the Lok Sabha poll. The group led by Satpal Maharaj was left rudderless after his departure as Harish rawat also sacked his wife Amrita Rawat, state Tourism Minister. Most of the legislators owing allegiance to Satpal Maharaj were left with no choice but to join the Harish Rawat camp. With Vijay Bahuguna himself in political doldrums, his followers reading the ground reality, started drifting towards Harish Rawat. Many of his supporters jumped the fence and joined the Harish Rawat bandwagon.

Harish Rawat further consolidated his position in the party organisation by having his own protégé Kishore Upadhaya as the Uttarakhand Congress president. By showing magnanimity in accommodating his detractors in the party, Harish Rawat would emerge as the tallest Congress leader in the state in the run up to the next Assembly elections in 2017.