By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 28 Mar: Harish Rawat, the stalwart Congress leader and father of the party candidate from the Haridwar Lok Sabha seat, Virender Rawat, has alleged that no one in Haridwar city is willing to offer space to the Congress to open its election office.
Harish Rawat, who is campaigning hard to push the electoral fortunes of son Virender Rawat in Haridwar was speaking informally with the media persons, today. Harish Rawat claimed that he is extremely concerned about the fact that the people whom he had helped during his tenure as the local MP and then as the Chief Minister of the state are also shying away from opening the party office in their locality.
Rawat alleged that the people whom he had helped in the past have turned their backs on him today. He had spoken to several people to permit opening of the election campaign office in Haridwar on their property but they shied away from doing so. This may be because of some pressure put on them by the ruling BJP.
Rawat reminded that, when it was his government, he had the power to help anyone and had indeed done so for innumerable people and ashrams in Haridwar, but none of them were willing to provide space for the party’s campaign office in Haridwar.
Harish Rawat reminded that Congress is the oldest party in the country and that he has been a Union Minister and also a Chief Minister of the state, but today, when he is asking for a little help from the people, he is not getting any satisfactory response. He added, however, that soon some arrangements would be made to open the election campaign office in Haridwar. He blamed the BJP for applying undue pressure. This, he asserted, indicated the atmosphere of fear being created by the ruling party.
It may be recalled that BJP has fielded former Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat from the Haridwar Lok Sabha seat. On the day of Holi, Harish Rawat and Trivendra Singh Rawat had met and exchanged Holi greetings. When asked about this meeting with the BJP candidate Trivendra Singh Rawat as well as with CM Pushkar Singh Dhami on Holi, he asserted that no political meaning should be derived from these courtesy meetings. Rawat said that Virender Rawat is contesting elections for the first time, and is doing very well. As a political worker, Virender has long experience in Congress but as a father, he (Harish Rawat) does offer some advice to his son regarding election campaigning.