DIFFERENCES ERUPTED IN THE AICC MEETING IN KUMARI SHELJA’S PRESENCE WITH CONGRESS LEGISLATORS EXPRESSING THEIR IRE AGAINST STATE LEADERSHIP

The Congress legislators summoned to Delhi by the chief incharge and observer of Uttarakhand Congress Kumari Shailja alongwith the chief of Uttarakhand Congress Karan Mahara and the present and past leaders of the opposition in the state assembly Yashpal Arya and Pritam Singh all representing different factions, have in the meeting shown their actual colours of tremendous differences with majority of the legislators vociferously airing their annoyance and anger against the present leadership of the state sending an unambiguous message that all is not well in the state party organisation resulting in not only the BJP coming back to power for the second term in the 2022 assembly elections but also leading to the saffron party winning for the third consecutive term in parliamentary elections. After the former union minister and senior Congress leader Kumari Shailja and the CWC member Gurdeep Singh Sappal both looking after Uttarakhand Congress affairs have addressed the 19 MLAs present in the AICC meeting held in the War Room urging for cohesive unity to take on the saffron party in the state never did she realised that the party legislators would come down so heavily on state leadership giving a clear cut impression of the state party organisation badly faction ridden full of internal squabbles. According to the news filtering out from the news room of AICC yesterday evening it was revealed that the legislators aired their differences in front of their leader fearlessly regarding lack of coordination and sidelining them in various decision making including appointing their own people in the district and block organisation without bringing the legislators into confidence. While expressing their differences the legislators were so outspoken and annoyed that the meeting venue was full of acrimonious scenes at times. According to sources some of the acrimonious legislators have expressed their dissatisfaction and disappointment against the state leadership in the matters pertaining to their constituencies and districts for not being taken into confidence and taking unilateral decisions in organisational matters sidelining them. According to sources the legislators of Haridwar had been extremely vocal in expressing their annoyance against the state chief. The Kichcha legislator Tilak Raj Behad was also annoyed and quite acrimonious in raising his voice for not maintaining the regional balance in power sharing organisationally. MLA of Kichcha Tilak Raj Behad spoke at length and urged the central leadership including the state leaders to seriously think over the stepmotherly treatment being meted out to them urging for weighing various pros and cons before sidelining them. It may be recalled that Tilak Raj Behad, former health minister during Congress regime and MLA from Kichcha has always been vocal on the issues of maintaining regional balance in the organisational sharing of responsibilities emphasising the same grievance this time as well. The way legislators were acrimonious and outspoken speaking about the state party chief Karan Mahara airing their grievances , the central observer of Uttarakhand affairs Kumari Shailja and CWC member Gurdeep Sappal arrived at the conclusion that all is not well in the organisation and it is badly faction ridden including state leadership not having control over the unbridled MLAs. There are also reports that some of the annoyed MLAs have asked for separate meeting with Kumari Shailja obviously meaning that they have complaints of serious nature against the state leadership. After going through all these rumblings the central leadership urged for the unity within the party organisation to strongly and cohesively confront the ruling BJP and also congratulating those who have won from Mangalore and Badrinath seats including the state chief hoping that all the legislators and leaders including workers will work in unison in future too, to ensure the victory of the Congress party on the lines of the recent victories in the two by election. She also urged the party to be ready in unison for the Kedarnath by-election and other local polls maintaining the same spirit to ensure party’s victory to strengthen the hands of Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi at the centre. What is surprising to note is the fact that former chief minister of Uttarakhand and senior most leader Harish Rawat and former state chief Ganesh Godiyal were not present in this meeting, may be they weren’t invited. In earlier every meeting Harish Rawat and Ganesh Godiyal were always present.