Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat facing heat of a new equation in party

All is not well these days with Trivendra Singh Rawat, the Uttarakhand Chief Minister who is heading a government with a brute majority of 57 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members in the 70-member Assembly. He is facing the heat of a new equation in his party -- former chief ministers Bhagat Singh Koshiyari and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank have joined hands. 

Every time the two BJP stalwarts joined hands, they have managed to oust their political opponents from the top job. In November 2000, soon after the formation of the new hill state, they got together and ended the political career of Nityanand Swami, who was the first chief minister, in less than a year. 

In 2007 when B C Khanduri became chief minister of the second BJP government in the state, they again aligned to topple the retired army general in 2009.  However, Khanduri bounced back and became chief minister in 2011, just a few months before the Assembly elections. 

Last week, Koshiyari and his supporters went to Nishank's house in Dehradun for "a cup of tea". The two leaders shook hands and exchanged bouquets and pleasantries in front of the media to signal they were together again. Former chief minister Vijay Bahuguna also came to the tea party with supporters. More than 50 BJP MLAs were present at Nishank's house, which became big news in the local newspapers. “This was only a courtesy call and the media should not read too much between the lines,” said Koshiyari. Nishank too avoided a direct reply. 

But supporters of the two leaders claimed that both are unhappy with the working style of Rawat. 

Ever since, Rawat, who is considered close to BJP president Amit Shah, became chief minister in March, both Koshiyari and Nishank are feeling neglected politically. This is the first time after the formation of the BJP government in March last year that both Koshiyari and Nishank mustered the courage to show that they were still calling the shots in the state. 

One more BJP MLA Kunwar Pranav Singh “Champion”, a Bahuguna camp loyalist, created political ripples when he met Shah in New Delhi recently to complain about the working style of Rawat. State BJP president Ajay Bhatt tried to downplay the tea party incident and said such parties help bring top leaders and MLAs close.

Rawat, who was catapulted to the top job, rose to prominence after holding the post of the party’s organising secretary in 2000-2002. Born in 1960 at Khairasain village in Pauri district, he was the ninth child of Pratap Singh Rawat, an army soldier with the Garhwal Rifles. He studied in a mud and thatch school and completed his masters in journalism from the Garhwal University. At the age of 19, he joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and became a pracharak. He also served as agriculture minister in the second BJP government in 2007-20012. 

He became chief minister mainly due to his closeness with Shah and the RSS background. Rawat had wrested the Doiwala seat from the Congress by an impressive margin of 24,869 votes to win it for a third time. 

In 2014, he was made the BJP in-charge of Jharkhand, where he came out with flying colours after the party stormed to power in the Assembly elections. This was also a key reason that he was rewarded the top job in Uttarakhand.