A month after Congress was defeated by the BJP in the Uttarakhand Assembly elections, the party’s central leadership on Sunday announced their pick for the posts of Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president and Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader. According to the announcement, Karan Mahara, a two-time MLA from the Ranikhet seat, is the new PCC president while senior Congress leader and Bajpur MLA Yashpal Arya, who returned to the party just before the elections, was named the new CLP leader. Mahara won the election from Ranikhet in 2007 and 2017, but lost to BJP candidate Pramod Nainwal this year. Meanwhile, Bhuwan Chander Kapri, who defeated CM Pushkar Singh Dhami from the Khatima seat, was named as deputy CLP leader. “Congress president has appointed President of Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee, and Leader & Deputy Leader of Uttarakhand Congress Legislature Party with immediate effect,” read a statement issued and signed by party General Secretary K C Venugopal. While the tenure of the former leader of the opposition, Pritam Singh ended with the formation of the new Assembly, the post of PCC chief has been vacant since former state chief Ganesh Godiyal resigned from his post following the party’s defeat in the Assembly election. Congress president Sonia Gandhi had asked PCC presidents of Uttarakhand, Manipur, Punjab, Goa, and Uttar Pradesh to put in their resignations in order to facilitate a revamp of state Congress committees. With senior Congress leader Harish Rawat, the biggest face of the party in Uttarakhand, the state unit is broadly divided into pro-Rawat and anti-Rawat groups. But Rawat’s defeat from Lalkuan in the recent elections has thrown up many more contenders for key party positions. However, the recent announcement appears to have tackled the same. While Karan Mahara is considered close to Rawat, Yashpal Arya is relatively neutral. Kapri on the other hand is considered close to the anti-Rawat group. All three of the leaders are from Kumaon region. In the recently held Assembly polls, the BJP won 47 out of the 70 seats and Congress won 19. Though the BJP became the first ruling party to be voted back to power in Uttarakhand, Dhami lost the Khatima seat by 6,579 votes to the Congress’s Kapri. While the party retained him as CM, to continue in office, Dhami needs to get elected to the Uttarakhand Assembly within six months.
