By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 16 Sep: Veteran Congress leader and presently the National General Secretary of Congress, Harish Rawat is known to make statements that confuse the people and party leaders alike on several issues. This time, again, he has issued a statement indicating that he may not contest the upcoming elections.
In support of his claim, he reminded that he had not contested the polls in 2002, 2007 and even in 2012 assembly elections, either. He had contested the polls in 2017 but had lost.
Rawat said he would abide by the party high command’s decision in this regard though he would like to stay away from contesting this time in order to be able to focus on all the constituencies. He said, being a senior party leader, the attention of the media as well as that of the political rivals was focused on him. But the Congress had won in 2002 as well as in 2012, too, when he had not contested the polls but had led the party in the polls.
Now, whether he really wishes not to contest the polls, as he would still be elected leader of the Congress Legislative Party in case it wins the assembly elections, or he is attempting to put pressure on the party High Command to declare him the CM candidate in the upcoming polls, only he can tell. However, it will become clear only when the candidates are declared whether he will be contesting or not. In case he has to contest the polls, it will be interesting to see from which constituency he chooses. The last time, he had contested as the incumbent CM from Haridwar Rural and from Kichha and had lost from both. Sources in Congress claimed that Rawat could be looking for a new constituency this time, should he decide to contest.
