Future of regional parties bleak: Diwakar Bhatt

Tribune News Service

Mussoorie, September 19

Former Cabinet minister and Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) leader from the Devprayag Assembly seat Diwakar Bhatt, who lost the previous election to present MLA Mantri Prasad Naithani, has said the future of regional parties in Uttarakhand is bleak. It was due to this reason along with the developmental vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he had joined the BJP, he said.

Diwakar Bhatt was in the town to meet and gauge the mood of voters from Devprayag. Before joining the BJP, Bhatt was in the UKD, which saw several divisions over the years.

National parties had a vision of development and under Modi, the BJP was a better choice than the Congress. Hence, after weighing all options, he had thought of leaving the UKD to join the saffron party, he said.

Bhatt said the politics in the state had been divided into three parts, which did not augur well for a small state like Uttarakhand. Politicians from the Garhwal region did not accept those from the Kumaon region while the politicians from Kumaon found it difficult to accept a leader from the Garhwal region. Not only this, the politicians from the plains, such as Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar, etc, did not accept a leader from the hills. Such a situation was not conducive for good governance as indifferences would result in chaotic conditions and unstable politics in the state, the former minister stated.

He lambasted Mantri Prasad Naithani and said his statement that the Devprayag constituency saw development under him was utterly false.

Bhatt claimed that most of the development works were undertaken during his tenure as MLA and under President’s rule. Hence to say that Naithani was the only one to bring in development was preposterous.

Bhatt indicated his intentions to contest again from the Devprayag Assembly seat in the next elections on the BJP ticket but said it would be his last Assembly elections.

Later, Bhatt, while interacting with the voters from his constituency, said the Kumbh Mela of politics in the form of Assembly elections was nearing in the state and he had come to invoke the Gods, that is the voters, in his favour.