Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat today said BJP's first list of candidates for the state "promotes dynastic politics" and is full of defectors against whom the saffron party itself used to level corruption charges at one time.
Rawat said he was surprised to note that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's stern public posturing against dynastic politics had conveniently been ignored by his own party.
"Prime minister is advising partymen to stay away from promoting dynastic politics whereas his own party's list of candidates for Uttarakhand seems to promote the malaise," Rawat told reporters here.
The party's first list of 64 candidates includes former chief minister B C Khanduri's daughter Ritu Khanduri Bhushan, former CM Vijay Bahuguna's son Saurabh, Congress turncoat Amrita Rawat's husband Satpal Maharaj besides the father-son duo of Yashpal Arya and Sanjeev Arya who joined the BJP hours before it announced their candidature.
Without naming Arya, Rawat said it was surprising that a party which claimed not inducting anyone without probing their antecedents had rewarded someone with two tickets within "four hours of taking him into the party".
Referring to Congress turncoats fielded by BJP, he said they were the same leaders on whom the party had slapped charges like disaster scam, seed scam, land scam, polyhouse scam, mining scam in Dabka and Kosi rivers, depositing huge amount in demonetised currency in cooperative banks, and stalled Vidhan Sabha proceedings for 12 days.
"It is strange that the same leaders are now running the BJP in Uttarakhand," Rawat said.
Asked whether these turncoats had not deserted the
Congress because of his high-handed style, Rawat replied in the negative and accused BJP of engineering the defections on the strength of power and pelf.
Claiming he had held the maximum number of cabinet meetings during his two-and-a-half-year tenure and framed policies and laws in the state's interest, Rawat asked whether cabinet decisions were not collective decisions.
Describing those who had deserted Congress as cheats who had backstabbed and let down their own party, he said, "history remembers brave and loyal soldiers not renegades."
However, he claimed their departure wouldn't make any difference to the party's prospects and people would vote for clean politics and Uttarakhandi identity.
When asked whether BJP renegades would be welcomed into the Congress, he said possibilities always exist in politics but any decision will be taken on the basis of merit.
Scotching speculation that he had asked for tickets for quite a few of his family members, Rawat said the party had decided to field not more than one candidate from a family.
"A candidate's work and their ability to win are the primary considerations for giving tickets to aspirants but the party has decided to field just one candidate from a family. The principle was followed while announcing candidates for Punjab and the same will be done in Uttarakhand," he said.
Speculation was rife that Rawat was seeking tickets for his wife Renuka, his sons Anand and Virendra and daughter Anupama.
Rawat also said the party will announce its candidates for the February 15 polls in Uttarakhand after January 19.
PCC president Kishore Upadhyay said the party has vowed to work for the victory of the official nominees to counter the atmosphere of treacherous defection built by BJP.
