The ruling Congress cannot wash its hands off the "criminal negligence" in dealing with last year's flash floods by changing chief minister, BJP leader Uma Bharti today said.
She said that there was a wave in favour of Narendra Modi across the country and her party will sweep all the five Lok Sabha seats of Uttarakhand in 2014 polls.
"In 1998, in undivided Uttar Pradesh when there was a wave in favour of Atal Ji we won all Lok Sabha seats from this region and this time we are going to repeat the feat," Bharti, who is the party's poll committee chief for Uttarakhand, told reporters here.
Noting that changing the chief minister of Uttarakhand just a couple of months before the Lok Sabha polls was not going to be electorally beneficial for Congress, she said Harish Rawat cannot escape his responsibility of the "criminal negligence" which led to such largescale damage in the wake of 2013 flash floods.
"The calamity was natural and inevitable but what followed could have been prevented.
"Harish Rawat who was also part of the ministerial committee constituted by the Centre for Uttarakhand will have to partake of the responsibility for the criminal negligence which led to such huge losses in terms of lives and property in affected areas," Bharti said. Referring to her tours in the calamity hit areas, she claimed resentment prevails among people because life is yet to get back to normal.
"Distributing food packets is not relief. People must get back on their feet which is one area where the state government as well as the Centre have failed," she alleged.
