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Unlike the snoopgate, wivesgate came like a flash in the pan in Uttarakhand. With the polling coming to an end in the state for the five Lok Sabha seats on Wednesday, the alleged two wives issue also appeared to have withered away.
A delegation of top BJP leaders, led by Uma Bharti, on Monday had demanded a probe into the “mysterious disappearance of Basanti Devi, the first wife of chief minister Harish Rawat”. “The Uttarakhand police received a memorandum from the BJP and accordingly a probe is being initiated,” a top police official told Business Standard.
Launching a personal attack, Bharti accused the chief minister of marrying second time to Renuka, who is contesting from the Haridwar Lok Sabha seat, without divorcing Basanti Devi, a mother of two sons and a daughter.
“We have lodged a report with the police that Basanti Devi, who is first wife of chief minister Harish Rawat is missing from her home in Almora area in Kumaon region,” said Bharti.
Bharti also demanded the resignation of the chief minister for marrying second time on moral grounds. She further alleged that the name of Basanti Devi has also been deleted from the voter list in Almora.
Interestingly, it is not the first time that the BJP is raising the issue of second wife of Harish Rawat. In 2004 general elections also, the BJP had approached the Election Commission to cancel the nomination papers of Renuka on grounds that she was the second wife of Rawat.
But political observers said the wivesgate issue failed to make any damage to the ruling Congress in the elections.
When contacted, a Congress spokesman said the issue will have no affect on the prospects of Renuka Rawat in the election and Congress will win all the five seats in the state.
In yet another move, Congress leader and former state minister Kishore Upadhayay has raised doubts on the marital status of former chief minister and senior BJP leader Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, whose wife Kusam died of cancer in 2012.
“If you meet Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank next time, please do ask him how many wives and children he has,” said Upadhayay.
Nishank is locked in an intense fight against Congress candidate Renuka from Haridwar constituency.
But social activists have advised the politicians to refrain from personal attacks and mud-slinging “I think such kind of attacks should be kept out of politics,” said Padamshree Anil Joshi, a renowned social activist.
