© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Five days after being removed as a BJP member and Uttarakhand minister on charges of indiscipline, Harak Singh Rawat joined the Congress in Delhi Friday along with his daughter-in-law Anukriti Gusain. The low-key welcome party included Harish Rawat, the Congress campaign head in Uttarakhand who had opposed the junior Rawat’s entry.
In a long history of party-hopping, Harak Singh’s last stint in the Congress ended in 2016, when he was part of the MLAs who defected bringing down Harish Rawat’s government.
Putting up a united front, the Congress Friday ensured the presence of its entire Uttarakhand line-up in Delhi for Harak Singh, including PCC president Ganesh Godiyal, Leader of Opposition in the Uttarakhand Assembly Pritam Singh, state party in-charge Devender Yadav and others.
Sources indicated that the Congress might not oblige him further though, and Harak Singh would have to choose between himself and his daughter-in-law for a ticket.
Harak Singh first gave a hint of his days in the BJP being numbered last month, when he threatened to resign as Minister of Forest and Environment, Labour, Employment, Skill Development and Energy at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. The reason he gave was the state BJP government’s lack of approval for a medical college in his Kotdwar constituency.
BJP sources said the real provocation was the party’s reluctance to give a ticket to Gusain besides Harak Singh.
While the senior leader hoped to traipse into the Congress, the BJP’s action removing him significantly reduced his bargaining power. As Harish Rawat held out, the Congress took five days to decide, finally taking Harak Singh on the same day as nominations began for Uttarakhand elections.
Harish Rawat’s animus dates back to March 2016, when Harak Singh had joined eight other Congress MLAs in joining hands with the BJP to fell his government. Harak Singh reportedly wanted more portfolios, like PWD and Power, and was turned down by the CM.
Talking to The Indian Express last month, Harish Rawat had indicated he would be accommodating, to an extent. “I have already said we will not take those involved in dislodging the government. But later I also said that if the party thinks it right, then we can consider. However, the person has to regret that the step at that time was against Uttarakhand and democracy… Regret for toppling the government is a must,” he had said.
The senior Rawat’s reservations notwithstanding, Harak Singh’s long run of election victories is too attractive to pass up for any party. A ‘doctorate in military science’, he was a reader at Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna University in Srinagar Garhwal before he joined the BJP in 1984. He lost the first Assembly elections he contested in then undivided Uttar Pradesh, but won in 1991 from Pauri and became the youngest minister in the Kalyan Singh government.
Harak Singh then shifted to the BSP, and when it denied him a ticket, jumped to the Congress in 1998. He won the next two elections from Lansdowne, in 2002 and 2007 (Uttarakhand was carved out in 2000), as a Congress candidate. He was the Leader of Opposition from 2007 to 2012. In 2012, he lost to Vijay Bahuguna in the race for the CM’s post. In 2016, following the rebellion against Harish Rawat, he was back in the BJP.
BJP spokesperson Suresh Joshi attacked the Congress, saying its decision to take in Harak Singh proved that all the allegations the latter had once made against the party were correct.
Congress Uttarakhand media in-charge Rajeev Maheshwari said there was no point talking about the past. Anyone wanting to join the party in defeating the corrupt BJP government was “more than welcome”, he said. “We are not taking the past into consideration and want everyone’s support to remove the BJP from the state.”
