 "Rawat refuses to give up chief ministership; placates disgruntled partymen")
The position of beleaguered Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat is no different from that of Nitish Kumar in Bihar. Except the fact that Rawat is not ready to resign, yet.
Rawat is facing an all-out attack from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), after the ruling Congress was routed in the state in the Lok Sabha results declared on May 16. For the first time, the Congress lost all the five Lok Sabha seats in the state, that too with huge margins.
BJP is seeking resignation of Rawat, stating that in 2009, B C Khanduri, the then chief minister, had resigned on similar grounds after the saffron party lost all the five Lok Sabha seats.
However, Rawat has rejected the BJP’s demand for resignation and has instead launched efforts to placate the disgruntled ruling party MLAs, as well as those belonging to the Progressive Democratic Front (PDF), which is sharing power with the Congress in the state. Congress, with strength of 33 MLAs, depends on the support of the 7-member PDF, a group of MLAs who are mostly independents in the 70-member House.
On Sunday, Rawat bestowed more Cabinet posts to 10 disgruntled MLAs. Congress MLA Nav Prabhat, a close kin of former chief Minister N D Tiwari, was made the chairman of the infrastructure and industrial development council, a new post created by the CM.
Similarly, another Congress MLA, Rajendra Bhandari, a staunch supporter of BJP leader Satpal Mahraj, was bestowed with the chairmanship of the state-level district planning and monitoring and implementation committee. Bhandari is also chairman of the 20-point programmme committee. By doing this, Rawat has made sure that all such disgruntled MLAs remain together in the hour of crisis.
So, in all probability, Rawat seems to bge in no mood to follow the footsteps of Nitish Kumar.
On the other hand, though the BJP is mounting pressure on Rawat to quit, no such demand has come from within the ruling party so far. “There is a huge difference as far as the situation of 2009 and 2014 are concerned. In 2009, Khanduri faced the heat within the party. But Rawat has not faced any such opposition within the party so far,” claimed a top Congress leader. Former Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna is silent on the issue after the loss of his son Saket from Tehri seat. Maharaj is also not showing any hurry despite indications that his wife Amrita, state tourism minister, might be sacked in the next cabinet reshuffle.
However, the fate of Rawat depends largely on the wishes of the high command where party President Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi are yet to decide on their own resignation issue after the party’s worst performance since the independence.
“The good thing is that the Congress high command is not in a position to make any change in the state. This is a blessing in disguise for Rawat,” said another Congress leader.
Rawat is facing an all-out attack from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), after the ruling Congress was routed in the state in the Lok Sabha results declared on May 16. For the first time, the Congress lost all the five Lok Sabha seats in the state, that too with huge margins.
BJP is seeking resignation of Rawat, stating that in 2009, B C Khanduri, the then chief minister, had resigned on similar grounds after the saffron party lost all the five Lok Sabha seats.
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Former chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank is leading the BJP charge against Rawat, after his smashing victory against the chief minister’s wife, Renuka, from Haridwar.
However, Rawat has rejected the BJP’s demand for resignation and has instead launched efforts to placate the disgruntled ruling party MLAs, as well as those belonging to the Progressive Democratic Front (PDF), which is sharing power with the Congress in the state. Congress, with strength of 33 MLAs, depends on the support of the 7-member PDF, a group of MLAs who are mostly independents in the 70-member House.
On Sunday, Rawat bestowed more Cabinet posts to 10 disgruntled MLAs. Congress MLA Nav Prabhat, a close kin of former chief Minister N D Tiwari, was made the chairman of the infrastructure and industrial development council, a new post created by the CM.
Similarly, another Congress MLA, Rajendra Bhandari, a staunch supporter of BJP leader Satpal Mahraj, was bestowed with the chairmanship of the state-level district planning and monitoring and implementation committee. Bhandari is also chairman of the 20-point programmme committee. By doing this, Rawat has made sure that all such disgruntled MLAs remain together in the hour of crisis.
So, in all probability, Rawat seems to bge in no mood to follow the footsteps of Nitish Kumar.
On the other hand, though the BJP is mounting pressure on Rawat to quit, no such demand has come from within the ruling party so far. “There is a huge difference as far as the situation of 2009 and 2014 are concerned. In 2009, Khanduri faced the heat within the party. But Rawat has not faced any such opposition within the party so far,” claimed a top Congress leader. Former Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna is silent on the issue after the loss of his son Saket from Tehri seat. Maharaj is also not showing any hurry despite indications that his wife Amrita, state tourism minister, might be sacked in the next cabinet reshuffle.
However, the fate of Rawat depends largely on the wishes of the high command where party President Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi are yet to decide on their own resignation issue after the party’s worst performance since the independence.
“The good thing is that the Congress high command is not in a position to make any change in the state. This is a blessing in disguise for Rawat,” said another Congress leader.