Model-turned-politician Anukriti Gusain quits Congress month after ED summons to her and father-in-law Harak Singh Rawat

In a letter to Congress state president Karan Mahara, Anukriti said she was leaving the party for personal reasons. “Today, on March 16, I am submitting my resignation from the primary membership of the All India National Congress party due to some personal reasons,” she wrote in the letter posted on her Instagram account.

In February, former state forest minister and Congress leader Harak Singh Rawat and Anukriti were summoned by the ED for questioning. The summons came after the ED conducted search operations on February 7 at 17 locations in Uttarakhand, New Delhi, and Haryana under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 in connection with the alleged forest scam case.

The case against Rawat concerns allegations of illegalities regarding the felling of thousands of trees, financial irregularities, and unauthorised construction in the Pakhro Tiger Reserve range of Corbett National Park in 2019. Rawat, who had earlier been with the BJP, had championed the Pakhro Tiger Reserve development during his tenure as forest minister in the previous BJP government.

Rawat has switched parties on several occasions. He won his first Assembly election in 1991 on a BJP ticket from Pauri and served as the youngest minister in the Kalyan Singh government in undivided Uttar Pradesh. He later joined the BSP. In 1998, Rawat switched to the Congress after being denied a ticket by the BSP and got elected as MLA from Lansdowne in 2002 and 2007. He was the Leader of the Opposition in the state from 2007 to 2012.

In 2012, Rawat lost to Vijay Bahuguna in the race to the chief minister’s post and was inducted in the Cabinet. Rawat was also one of the nine Congress rebel legislators who in 2016 joined hands with the BJP against then CM Harish Rawat to dislodge his government. This happened after his persistent request for more departments, such as PWD and Power, was turned down by the then CM.

However, in January 2022 the Uttarakhand BJP removed then state Cabinet Minister Harak Singh Rawat from the party for six years, citing indiscipline. Days later, he joined the Congress along with his daughter-in-law Anukriti Gusain.

Anukriti, who was the fourth runner-up in the Miss India Asia Pacific World 2014 pageant and has represented India in the Miss Grand International contest in 2017, made her electoral debut in the 2022 Vidhan Sabha elections. She lost to incumbent BJP MLA Daleep Singh Rawat, the son of influential party leader Bharat Singh Rawat.