New faces may not end old factional problems for Uttarakhand Congress

Neither former state Congress president Ganesh Godiyal, who is considered a trusted lieutenant of Harish Rawat, nor former Leader of Opposition Pritam Singh found a place in the new-look state unit. Late Sunday night, Singh kicked off speculation in political circles by meeting Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. Both the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) and the Congress, however, claimed it was merely a formal meeting between the two leaders.

Some unhappy Congress leaders also claimed that the high command had neglected the Garhwal region by choosing Karan Mahara the state Congress president, Yashpal Arya the leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP), and Bhuwan Chander Kapri the deputy CLP leader. All three are from Kumaon. Though the new Mahara is Rawat’s brother-in-law, he is considered to be close to the anti-Rawat group in the party.

Congress General Secretary (Organisation) Mathura Dutt Joshi told The Indian Express that this talk of a regional divide was not important as both Godiyal and Singh who had led the party till the elections were from Garhwal. “In the announcement, the party has focused on reaching all social classes. Our CLP leader is from a Scheduled Caste community, state president Karan Mahara is Thakur, and Bhuwan Chander Kapri is a Brahmin,” Joshi added.

Mahara, the new Pradesh Congress Committee chief, told The Indian Express that dealing with factionalism in the party would be one of his major focuses. “Things like this (factionalism) are in every party. While in the BJP such things are suppressed by force, in the Congress there is the freedom to speak their mind. However, we want to make sure that from now on things are said on an appropriate platform. We need to tackle things that affect the prospects of the party,” the 49-year-old added.

The two-time Ranikhet MLA who lost to the BJP’s Pramod Nainwal this time said the Congress’s vote share of 37.91% in the Assembly elections suggests that things were not too bad for the party.

“The future of the party is bright because if we look at the voting percentage, the situation for us is not that bad. It is true that the BJP has more seats. But even after a free ration scheme and Rs 2,000 in bank accounts their margin was narrow. We could not raise some of the issues as we should have and what we need right now is to encourage workers,” Mahara said, adding that he would take some time to understand things.

The new state Congress chief is the son of former Uttar Pradesh Cabinet minister Govind Singh Mahara who represented Ranikhet in the Assembly of the undivided Uttar Pradesh. In 1984, Karan Mahara’s elder brother Pooran Singh Mahara was elected from the seat. Pooran lost the seat in the 2002 election to the BJP’s Ajay Bhatt. Five years later, Karan contested from Ranikhet and defeated Bhatt. The BJP leader reclaimed the seat in 2012 but lost to Mahara once again in 2017.

House leadership

Bajpur MLA Yashpal Arya who returned to the party from the BJP last October along with his son Sanjiv is the new Leader of Opposition. The seven-time MLA — twice in undivided Uttar Pradesh and five times in Uttarakhand — was the party’s state president from 2007 to 2014. The 70-year-old also served as the Speaker of the Uttarakhand Assembly from 2002 to 2007 and has been a Cabinet minister.

Arya’s deputy in the House will be Khatima MLA and former state Congress general secretary Bhuwan Chander Kapri who defeated Dhami in the election. Reputedly a good organiser and strategist, the 40-year-old was a Youth Congress leader and considered to be a close confidante of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi. In his debut state election in 2017, Kapri lost to Dhami by 2,709 votes.