ED Raids on Harish Rawat’s PA Ahead of Uttarakhand Polls: Political Vendetta or Calculated Checkmate to Defame Congress?

By Sunil Negi

With the Uttarakhand Assembly elections knocking at the door, the political temperature in the Himalayan state has begun to soar. The ruling saffron party, BJP, sensing a strong anti-incumbency after two consecutive terms, appears to have tightened its belt to retain power for a historic third term – allegedly by hook or by crook.

On the other side, the principal opposition, Congress, was till recently displaying a rare, exemplary unity. The entire state unit seemed cohesively determined not to let BJP score a hat-trick. But the sudden ED raids on multiple locations, including the residence of former Chief Minister Harish Rawat’s Personal Assistant Chandan Singh, have thrown the Congress from an offensive mode into a defensive huddle.

The ED claims to have unearthed cash, gold and bank balances worth Rs 1.28 crores, allegedly linking it to the UKSSSC paper leak scam of 2016 – when Harish Rawat was the Chief Minister. The timing of the raids, just when the Congress was mounting its Vijay Rath in Uttarakhand, has inevitably raised serious questions of political vendetta and a deliberate exercise to defame the Congress.

State Congress President Ganesh Godiyal has hit out hard, asking a pointed question – where was the ED for the last ten years? How is it that it suddenly woke up to raid targets linked to Harish Rawat when elections are round the corner?

Defending Rawat, Godiyal categorically reminded that when the 2016 controversy had erupted, Rawat himself had not only shunted out the then Chairman of UKSSSC but had also ordered re-examination to ensure transparency.

Since then, BJP has ruled Uttarakhand for ten years with three different Chief Ministers. It was under BJP’s rule that the UKSSSC recruitment and paper leak scam occurred on a massive scale. The main brain behind it, BJP’s own Panchayat member Hakam Singh, was arrested. Today, Hakam Singh has been given a clean chit. This, Godiyal argues, clearly proves that the raids on Rawat’s PA and other locations are a desperate attempt to shift the blame of the UKSSSC paper leak from BJP to Congress, to neutralize the opposition’s most potent poll plank.

However, even Congress insiders admit that Rawat’s PA Chandan Singh cannot absolve himself of the charge of disproportionate wealth. He will have to answer the ED and reveal the top source of this wealth, through which the agency is now trying to reach the top.

The development has put the entire state Congress in jeopardy. Leaders who were in an aggressive mode against BJP are now busy defending themselves, terming the ED action as politically motivated, guided by BJP’s vendetta and a blatant misuse of central agencies to defame Congress in an election season.

The moral pressure on Harish Rawat has been so tremendous that he has been compelled to resign from two key posts – membership of the State Executive Committee and as Permanent Invitee in the CWC, the highest decision-making body of the Congress party.

According to reliable sources, while the entire Congress is today standing in solidarity with Rawat, calling the raids politically motivated and an attack on a political rival, the truth is more layered. They are standing together today not so much for Harish Rawat individually, but to protect the reputation and electoral prospects of the Congress party in the state.

On the flip side, sources reveal that a section of senior leaders within the party – including names like Kumari Selja, former PCC chief and six-term MLA Pritam Singh, Dr. Harak Singh Rawat and several others – are internally relieved after these raids.

For them, Harish Rawat was the biggest bottleneck in their own chief ministerial ambitions. Despite being 78, Rawat’s unmatched popularity, his connect with workers, and his hyper-mobility – attending every small and big political programme across the hills and plains – was seen as the greatest impediment to their own growth. In his proactive presence, they felt their own political future was devalued.

Moreover, Rawat has been demanding tickets for his daughter Anupama Rawat, sitting MLA from Haridwar Rural, and his son Anand Singh Rawat, while never giving up his own claim for the CM’s chair.

Today, Uttarakhand Congress is riddled with tremendous factionalism, with several groups operating, and every group considered Rawat as the biggest roadblock. This is why, sources reveal, though for the sake of safeguarding the party’s image they are standing in solidarity today, internally they want him out of the CM race.

The ED raids on his PA’s house, in a twisted way, have brought them political dividends. They feel Rawat will now be politically bogged down, entangled in explanations, and may even prefer retiring from active politics of Uttarakhand.

The ED action may have legally cornered Chandan Singh, but politically it has done two things at once – it has given BJP a tool to counter Congress’s attack on the massive UKSSSC and other recruitment scams under its own rule, and it has triggered an internal churning in Congress that may decide who will be its face in the 2027 battle.

Whether this is a genuine investigation into an old scam or a well-timed political strike to derail Congress’s Vijay Rath, will be decided by the people of Uttarakhand. But one thing is certain – the battle for Devbhoomi has just become far more intriguing, far more personal, and far more ruthless.