Congmen want ND Tiwari out of Uttaranchal affairs

Logically, Tiwari should have become a PCC member from his constituency, but the CWC member obviously wants to keep his hold in the UP state unit intact. “Tiwari wants to have the best of both worlds, have his say in UP as well as Uttaranchal… the senior leader should first decide where his loyalties lie,” said a senior leader from Uttaranchal.

What has further irked the group is that despite “dissociating” himself from Uttaranchal, Tiwari has been taking keen interest in the state’s affairs from outside and lobbying hard for close confidants Indira Hirdyesh, an MLC, and former Union minister Satpal Maharaj for the PCC chief’s post.

Hirdyesh, an MLC from the teachers’ quota, is a long-time associate of Tiwari but hasn’t been actively associated with Congress politics as she became a party member and PCC delegate for the first time recently. Maharaj too is die-hard Tiwari loyalist, having left the Congress to join Tiwari’s Congress T in 1995.

The group against Tiwari has been pleading for the appointment of senior state leader and former MP Harish Rawat to the top job in the state unit. Rawat, a three-time MP from Almora, is also the convenor of the Uttarakhand Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti, which spearheaded the agitation for a separate hill state.

The state unit comprising around 130 delegates has already passed a resolution authorising Sonia to nominate the first PCC chief of the new state. Apart from Hirdyesh, the Congress has one MLA in the 30-member state Assembly, but the delay in finding a new PCC chief is costing dear because there is practically no official voice to air the party’s views on crucial issues.

Meanwhile, despite a meeting with Sonia last evening, S.S. Bundela, party MP from Jhansi and rebel leader Jitendra Prasada’s loyalist, is determined to contest for the election of the PCC chief’s post in UP. “I have already announced my candidature for the post and there is no question of going back now,” he said today.

Bundela said he had discussed party matters in UP in his half-hour meeting with Sonia and that the issue of party elections in the state didn’t crop up. Party sources said the election in-charge of the state, Birender Singh, had decided on the election schedule, with the nominations to take place on December 3 and elections if necessary on December 7.