Will Uttaranchal get its first woman CM?

Uttaranchal Chief Minister N.D. Tiwari is yet to put in his papers, but a war of succession has already erupted in the state. Two women Congress leaders have emerged as front-runners for the top post — that is if the Congress high command decides on a change.

Uttaranchal PWD and Information Minister Indira Hridayesh, a protege of the incumbent Chief Minister, is being portrayed as a strong candidate. Reeta Bahuguna Joshi, president of the All India Mahila Congress, is another strong contender surpassing even her brother, Vijay Bahuguna, who has been trying to encash the political stature of his father — former UP chief minister, H.N. Bahuguna. Joshi had met Sonia Gandhi yesterday. Uttaranchal Congress chief Harish Rawat and former Union minister Satpal Maharaj also met her.

Sources say the men have a difficult task at hand as they may find it tough to convince the high command to claim the top post with a string of electoral losses suffered by them or their siblings and proteges in the recent past. Harish Rawat has lost four elections and his wife Renuka Rawat lost the last parliamentary polls. Satpal Maharaj has also lost three Lok Sabha polls while Vijay Bahuguna, after three consecutive defeats at the hustings, is still awaiting his first electoral win.

Hridayesh fired the first salvo today, targeting Rawat, a long-standing detractor of Tiwari. ‘‘If there has to be a change, the new leader should be picked up from among MLAs,’’ she said. Though, she did not name Rawat, there was no doubt about the target — Rawat is a Rajya Sabha MP.