By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 19 Mar: BJP has been continuously winning all the five Lok Sabha elections since 2014 after having lost all the five seats to Congress in 2009. However despite having lost two straight parliamentary election in respect of all the 5 seats, never before, the Congress has looked so vulnerable as it is clearly appearing in the present. There is currently a continuous exodus from the party but the party leadership appears totally clueless and helpless in preventing or curbing the exodus. The Uttarakhand BJP looks very much crowded now with leaders from various parties including former MLAs and senior leaders from Congress joining the party and yet the Congress leaders along with their supporters continue to join the BJP.
In past ten days, more than 10 senior Congress leaders including a sitting MLA and one last time Parliamentary candidate have joined the BJP. In fact , BJP State President Mahendra Bhatt had long before openly stated that many senior Congress leaders were in touch with the BJP and were likely to join the BJP in coming days. Yet, the Congress leadership at the Centre and in the state did not seem to have taken any cognisance of the statements of the BJP leaders and did not take any corrective action to prevent this exodus that one is witnessing now.
Names of many of the Congress leaders who have joined the BJP recently were being speculated in the media and in the political circles of the state but the state Congress leadership remained unaware even after seeing all this. One can even say that the party had already surrendered to the BJP’s strategy. That’s why one leader after another kept resigning from the party but the Congress could not do anything in the state in the name of damage control. Of course, in defence of the state Congress leadership, it can be stated that no one can stop someone from leaving the party once he or she has decided. In addition, it can also be stated that the trend of the exodus of senior party leaders from the party is currently a nationwide trend with respect to Congress and therefore one can’t just blame the Uttarakhand Congress leadership for this. However, at the same time, no effort has been visible on part of the state Congress leaders to prevent this exodus.
The morale of the party workers and many leaders is currently so low that none of the senior party leaders is willing to contest the Parliamentary elections in the state. The only exception remains in respect of Haridwar where the PCC Chief Karan Mahara and senior Congress leader Harak Singh Rawat have staked claim to the party ticket. Veteran Congress leader Harish Rawat, who had been politically very active in past three years in Haridwar also seems to have backed off if the party sources are to be believed and is instead lobbying for a party ticket to his son Virendra Rawat. Sources in the party claim that the party leadership is pressurising Harish Rawat to agree to contest. Congress is yet to declare candidates from Haridwar and Nainital seats. The ones seriously keen on contesting from Nainital include Ranjeet Rawat, a former Congress MLA from Salt and former two time MP Mahendra Pal. Others like Yashpal Arya and Pritam Singh have strongly resisted offers to contest from Nainital (and even Almora) and Tehri seats respectively. Last time Congress candidate from Pauri Manish Khanduri has recently joined BJP in spite of being aware that he will not get the BJP ticket from Pauri.
Those who have quit the party in past few days include Congress MLA Rajendra Bhandari from Badrinath Assembly, former Gangotri MLA Vijaypal Sajwan, former Purola MLA Malchand, former Tehri MLA Dhan Singh Negi, former District Panchayat President from Rudraprayag Lakshmi Rana, Harak Singh Rawat’s daughter-in-law Anukriti Gusain, former MLA Shailendra Rawat besides many others,
Congress is apprehensive about the fact that BJP is contacting many other big leaders of their party. For this, now the activities of such leaders are also being monitored, but all these efforts appear to be ineffective. Currently, there are many Congress leaders in Uttarakhand whose names are being speculated regarding possibility of shifting the party. State Vice President of Uttarakhand Congress, Mathura Dutt Joshi admitted that this is a period of crisis for the Congress
Ironically, this is not the first time that this is happening with Congress in Uttarakhand. A large exodus from Congress to BJP had happened in 2016 too when more than 7 party MLAs led by former Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna and the then Cabinet Minister Harak Singh Rawat had quit the party to bring the Harish Rawat Government in crisis. Before that, very senior Congress leader Satpal Maharaj had also quit the party after Harish Rawat had become the CM. Even in the present Dhami Government there are at least four cabinet ministers who had quit the Congress to join the BJP. They are Satpal Maharaj, Subodh Uniyal, Saurabh Bahuguna and Rekha Arya. Earlier, in the previous BJP Government, even Harak Singh was a senior Cabinet Minister.
Even though Uttarakhand Congress is claiming to win all five Lok Sabha seats of the state in the Lok Sabha elections. But the ground situation is such that the Congress leadership is appearing to be clueless and demoralised to even make it a keen contest in the coming parliamentary elections.
